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Facebook settles US worker discrimination claims

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Facebook has settled a major discrimination case, agreeing to pay a record $14.5m to settle claims made by US workers

The world’s biggest social media giant, Facebook, has agreed to pay a record $14.5m to settle claims it discriminated against U.S. workers in its hiring practice.

The United States Department of Justice claimed that the tech giant often overlooked US workers in favour of foreign ones on temporary visas.

It is the biggest penalty of its kind issued by the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

Facebook said it “strongly believes” it met the federal government’s standards

“Facebook is not above the law, and must comply with our nation’s federal civil rights laws, which prohibit discriminatory recruitment and hiring practices,” 

said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ.

“Companies cannot set aside certain positions for temporary visa holders because of their citizenship or immigration status.”

The tech sector in the United States often uses temporary visas, including the H-1B, to bring highly skilled foreign guest workers to America.

Tech giants argues those foreign workers are vital, because there are not enough American science and engineering graduates to fill the jobs available in areas such as artificial intelligence.

However, critics say the laws governing temporary visas are lax, and make it too easy to replace U.S workers with cheaper foreign labour – something US law prohibits.

Anthony Lucas is reporter, presenter and social media producer with ticker News. Anthony holds a Bachelor of Professional Communication, with a major in Journalism from RMIT University as well as a Diploma of Arts and Entertainment journalism from Collarts. He’s previously worked for 9 News, ONE FM Radio and Southern Cross Austerio’s Hit Radio Network. 

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Facial recognition has been used a million times by U.S. police

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Controversial facial recognition has been used a million times by police to help track criminals

 
As facial recognition becomes more prominent, the founder of tech firm Clearview says his company has run nearly a million searches for U.S. police.

It’s also been revealed the company has scraped 30 billion images from platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, taken without users’ permissions.

The company has been fined numerous times in Europe and countries like Australia for breaches of privacy laws.

In the U.S., critics say the use of Clearview by authorities puts everyone into a “police line-up”.

The company’s high-tech system allows law enforcement to upload a photo of a face and find matches in a database comprising of billions of images it has collected.

It then provides links to where matching images appear online.

The tool is considered to be one of the world’s most powerful and accurate.

While the company is banned from selling its services to most U.S. companies, there is an exemption for police. #trending #featured

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Baidu shows off A.I.-powered chatbot Ernie

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The event was meant to be livestreamed, but there was strong demand from companies to test the bot

Chinese search engine Baidu has shared pre-recorded videos of its A.I.-powered chatbot Ernie.

Revealing the bot performing more advanced tasks than at its launch two weeks ago.

While the videos were shown during a closed-door meeting, images shared by a Baidu spokesperson appeared to show significant developments.

This included summarising financial statements and producing powerpoint presentations, as well as producing travel itineraries.

The videos were shown to the first batch of companies that are testing an industry-focused version of the chatbot.

Ernie is considered China’s closest equivalent to U.S.-developed ChatGPT.

The meeting was originally meant to be a livestreamed product launch open to the media and public.

But the format was changed to prioritise what Baidu said was the “strong demand” from over 120,000 companies that had applied to test the bot.

More companies will be able to sign up to test the industry-focused version of the Ernie bot starting on March 31.

Tests conducted show that the regular version has a good command of the Chinese language.

However, it produces factual errors and avoids answering political questions.

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Another nation bans Huawei from 5G network

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Germany has joined Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States to stop the tech company

China has blasted Germany over the nation’s reported plan to ban Huawei from the country’s 5G network.

In Berlin, the Chinese embassy said it is “very puzzled” and “strongly dissatisfied” by the move.

Diplomats believe the decision has been made by Germany’s government without any factual basis.

Adding, the move violates German economic laws and the principles of fair competition.

The reported ban follows similar moves made by Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Hugh Odom from Vertical Consultants gave us the details.

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