Warned That Big, Messy AI Systems Would Generate Racist, Unfair Results
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JULY/AUG 2021 | DON’T BE EVIL warned that big, messy AI systems would generate racist, unfair results. Google brought her in to prevent that fate. Then it forced her out. Can Big Tech handle criticism from within? BY TOM SIMONITE NEW ROUTES TO NEW CUSTOMERS E-COMMERCE AT THE SPEED OF NOW Business is changing and the United States Postal Service is changing with it. We’re offering e-commerce solutions from fast, reliable shipping to returns right from any address in America. Find out more at usps.com/newroutes. Scheduled delivery date and time depend on origin, destination and Post Office™ acceptance time. Some restrictions apply. For additional information, visit the Postage Calculator at http://postcalc.usps.com. For details on availability, visit usps.com/pickup. The Okta Identity Cloud. Protecting people everywhere. Modern identity. For one patient or one billion. © 2021 Okta, Inc. and its affiliates. All rights reserved. ELECTRIC WORD WIRED 29.07 I OFTEN FELT LIKE A SORT OF FACELESS, NAMELESS, NOT-EVEN- A-PERSON. LIKE THE GPS UNIT OR SOME- THING. → 38 ART / WINSTON STRUYE 0 0 3 FEATURES WIRED 29.07 “THIS IS AN EXTINCTION EVENT” In 2011, Chinese spies stole cybersecurity’s crown jewels. The full story can finally be told. by Andy Greenberg FATAL FLAW How researchers discovered a teensy, decades-old screwup that helped Covid kill. by Megan Molteni SPIN DOCTOR Mo Pinel’s bowling balls harnessed the power of physics—and changed the sport forever. by Brendan I. Koerner HAIL, MALCOLM Inside Roblox, players built a fascist Roman Empire. Did that make them fashies IRL? by Cecilia D’Anastasio REVEL’S BUMPY RIDE When the shared electric mopeds hit the streets, people went wild. Then came the crashes. by Kate Knibbs THE MANHATTAN PROJECT One building will P.38 “GET THAT MONEY!” house Earth’s scariest animal pathogens. by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley Jeffrey Fang started driving for Lyft seven years ago and quickly mastered the ins and outs of the gig economy. The THE EXILE hustle became an addiction. Then his minivan got carjacked When Google cut ties during a DoorDash delivery—with his young children inside. with Timnit Gebru, by Lauren Smiley it called into question its whole system of self-scrutiny. by Tom Simonite 0 0 5 CONTENTS WIRED 29.07 ELECTRIC MIND WORD GRENADES P.8 Rants & Raves P.11 Glenn Gould’s Pandemic Moment by Virginia Heffernan ON THE P.16 All In on the Crypto Fight by Paul Ford COVER P.20 The Hidden Beauty of Chemistry by Meghan Herbst P.22 No Graphics Card, No Minecraft, No Connection by Jennifer Berney P.24 The Sound of Money by Arielle Pardes P.26 Translucent Nostalgia by Cecilia D’Anastasio P.28 Zoom Towns Rising by Aarian Marshall P.30 When AI Pulls the Trigger When photographer by Will Knight Djeneba Aduayom saw P.32 Cloud Support: Should I Use Timnit Gebru wearing an App to Slow Down? a blue scarf traditional by Meghan O’Gieblyn among some ethnic groups in Gebru’s native Ethiopia, P.34 The Best Ebikes she knew it would be in her by Adrienne So portrait. Aduayom draped the scarf around her. “It was just a perfect balance,” she says, “of mixing multi- SIX-WORD ple layers, physically and emotionally.” SCI-FI P.128 Very Short Stories by WIRED readers 0 0 6 What else can we do for our children? Help make the world more sustainable? And our portfolio too? For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone. Together we can find an answer. ubs.com/lifegoals Sustainable investing strategies aim to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into investment process and portfolio construction. Strategies across geographies and styles approach ESG analysis and incorporate the findings in a variety of ways. The returns on portfolios consisting primarily of sustainable investments may be lower or higher than portfolios where ESG factors, exclusions, or other sustainability issues are not considered, and the investment opportunities available to such portfolios may also differ. 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Gilad Edelman revisited the rationale behind Section 230, the landmark law that shields major tech corporations from liability over defamatory content on their platforms. And on WIRED.com (and page 62 in this issue), Megan Molteni writes about a scientist and a tenacious graduate student who unearthed an old scientific error with devastating consequences for the world’s response to Covid-19. correct the record. Perhaps west, if someone sneezes or RE: “SACRED COMMANDMENT/ that’s what WIRED really wants? coughs, it starts out as small ↙ FALSE IDOL” To go back to the old days, droplets but dries as it travels where if you wanted to com- from the body to aerosol size. Once an internet platform is ment on things you had to get Kudos to the researchers for aware that a posting is false and approval from editors at big their persistence, especially Readers defamatory, it should immedi- publishing houses? I prefer the the forensic investigator. complain ately delete it and note the reason open internet, and I thank Sec- —Mike, via [email protected] about for doing so. Neither the poster tion 230 for enabling it to exist nor the platform should escape the way it does. —@mmasnick, We often talk about the lack defamation, responsibility for the harm they via Twitter of dialog between science and appliances, have caused. —Robert Dawes, via public policy. Equally at fault is and siloed [email protected] RE: “SOFT-SERVE the lack of dialog between sci- HARDBALL” entific disciplines. That aero- science: We know it’s possible to have sol engineers and public health an internet without Section 230, I’ve often noticed that McDon- specialists and epidemiolo- insurrections, and a compromised gists were talking past each democracy, because other parts ald’s can’t keep its soft-serve machines working, but I didn’t other only underscores the of the world manage it. The US dangers of siloed academic version of the internet isn’t a pre- expect that sad fact to metas- tasize into a full-blown scan- thinking. We need people with requisite for accountability. skills to connect the dots. —@neilpbrady, via Twitter dal. —@harrymccracken, via Twitter —Junaid Ahmad, via mail@ WIRED.com As Section 230 advocate Cathy Gellis notes, in the “old days,” This story seems to be a pre-internet, you needed the reflection of the current appli- This is a great example of how approval of a gatekeeper—such ance manufacturing industry. important it is to teach histori- as a large magazine—to get your They make substandard prod- cal thinking and research skills. voice out there. The internet, and ucts, charge extra for service It’s a particular kind of ques- Section 230 with it, are part of agreements that ought not to tioning and literacy that, when RE: “FATAL FLAW” what makes it possible for her to be necessary, and use parts overlapped with other disci- that fail in two or three years. plines, is key to human sur- A complete abuse of what vival. —@homeonSaunders, used to be “engineering.” via Twitter —Werner Hofstatter, via mail@ WIRED.com Can’t believe an article on sci- “One of the better entific papers and research If McDonald’s truly had its could be this thrilling. franchisees’ interests at heart, —@CalibanCrew, via Twitter examples of just it would want the ice cream machines running as often as possible. Why don’t they? They how pernicious should have been negotiating with Taylor to get the Kytch on every machine. —Dan Grasso, confirmation bias via [email protected] RE: “FATAL FLAW” GET MORE WIRED can be.” All WIRED stories can be found As an infection control officer online, but only subscribers —@Roessler, via Twitter at a public safety agency, I get unlimited access. If you are have always been suspicious already a print subscriber, you of the droplet versus aerosol can authenticate your account argument. In the arid South- at WIRED.com/register. 0 0 8 NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID IN MA, MI, VA AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. The Winston Off-Road Revival Sweepstakes starts on 6/1/21 and ends on 9/30/21. Open only to legal residents of the 50 U.S. and DC (excluding residents of MA, MI, and VA) who are smokers, 21 years of age or older. 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