⚡Terminator
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Startups Changing the Game
We want to get better at showcasing new startups and how they are helping society move our collective needle to the Good Place. Here’s two that we liked recently:
Velocia
The 30-sec pitch. This new app has officially debuted in Miami and works as a public-private partnership with different mobility services. This app gives you free rides when you use any transportation option that isn’t a private car. It rewards commuters for choosing public transit, biking, car sharing, or walking over driving. Your rewards can be redeemed for discounts on any of the connected transit systems—as well as for Lyft and Uber credits.
“You can’t get a Starbucks coffee, you can’t get an Amazon gift card. We’re really focused on creating this circular kind of environment that encourages people to use different services in their city and to get out of their cars.” says Velocia CEO David Winterstein.
Why did they start this? The CEOs noticed there’s a lot of innovation on how to get people from point A to point B, but not enough impact on people’s transportation behaviors. Traffic congestion is at an all-time high, so they wanted to look at how to better incentivize people to start behaving differently.
What’s different? They built their platform on an open ecosystem. This means users can combine methods of transportation with their points. If they want to, they can start off with public transit and then grab a scooter for their last mile.
“We think with that type of approach, we’re going to start to actually move the needle when it comes to how people move in cities.”
Mona by Marhub
The 30-sec pitch. Mona is a new chatbot to give refugees instant legal aid. Using already built tools like Facebook Messenger and Telegram, refugees can collect key information much faster than exchanging emails with an aid organization.
Why did they start this? If you’re a Syrian refugee in Lebanon trying to navigate the legal path to resettlement, you’re probably going to have a hard time finding answers. The organizations that are there to help you are overstretched and it can take you as long as three months to get an email response. Mona is pretty instant.
“For us, it was about how could we get reliable information and services on the same platforms that refugees are already using, and reach them on their own terms with information and services that they could use when they actually need it most,” says Sarrah Nomanbhoy, one of the cofounders.
What’s different? They started a pilot earlier this year with International Refugee Assistance Project and in its first iteration, helped prescreen refugees. The goal was to produce a chatbot that felt empathetic and conversational, but also gathered the right information. The chatbot helped refugees get immediate information and also helped the nonprofit close cases faster.
If you look at both, neither technology is new, but they both have amazing potential to make a difference. We believe a lot of change can happen like this. We don’t need to wait for some crazy new innovation, but only need to reapply what we’ve already made and what we already know. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: if we only focused on changing the incentive structures and systems around us, we’d make heroic leaps in society. It’s a crazy thing to say, but we do have enough—enough to make a difference if we want and then choose to.
How Public Opinion is Shaping AI
We love to think about futuristic artificial intelligence as either clearly good (e.g., Jarvis from Iron Man) or evil (e.g., SkyNet from The Terminator). Today’s reality is not as clear — the public is split on the extent to which AI should enter our lives and what the implications are.
Understanding and shaping public opinion will be critical to the future development and application of this technology. In fact, a recent essay by the Brookings Institution argues that public opinion is going to be a key driver for how AI regulation is shaped in the United States. Let’s take a closer look at three use cases.
Facial Recognition & Law Enforcement
Law enforcement has been using facial recognition to scan driver’s license photos, mug shots, and international passengers at airports.
Public opinion. Most US adults support the use of facial recognition in law enforcement, but support is lower among certain groups: those aged 18-29, Black Americans, and those who identify as or lean Democrat. Plus, civil rights groups are worried about racial and gender bias as well as an increase in state surveillance capabilities.
Impact on regulation. A few cities around California and Massachusetts have banned the use of this technology by the police. Nationally, a number of bills have been introduced in Congress to regulate facial recognition, but none have progressed.
Social Media Platforms
The use of algorithms to recommend content (and do other shady things) by social media platforms has become increasingly problematic.
Public opinion. The public is concerned about the lack of accountability but are split on how to proceed — only half of the US public thinks that they should be regulated. In fact, most Americans trust tech companies more than the government to manage the development and use of artificial intelligence. On the flip side, civil society groups are (understandably) concerned about algorithms helping “spread misinformation, proliferate digital propaganda, create partisan echo chambers, and promote violent extremism.”
Impact on regulation. Regulation has stalled because of partisan splits. Congress held those super valuable hearings (...ugh) and then did nothing. Democratic senators have introduced legislation about increased transparency in online campaign ads and improved security protocols to safeguard data, whereas Republican lawmakers are accusing social media platforms for censoring conservative viewpoints. As a result, nothing is happening.
Lethal Autonomous Weapons
These weapons can “identify and engage targets without human intervention.” This technology has not yet been deployed, but it is very much under development.
Public opinion. Only a little over half of Americans oppose fully autonomous weapons systems, but the trend is (thankfully) improving. Political messaging has a major impact on this — public opinion goes up if they hear that other states are developing them. On the flip side, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots (best name ever) has advocated for a full international ban on these weapons because they argue that these are unethical and unsafe, especially when in the hands of failed states or non-state actors. Elon Musk and the co-founders of Google DeepMind are in support of this ban.
Impact on regulation. Twenty-six countries have expressed support for this ban, but major powers like the US, Russia, UK, and Israel oppose it. Frankly, no real regulation will likely progress on this front in the near-term because the technology is so far away.
Artificial intelligence has the potential to do incredible things for our society, but if left unregulated, it can be very dangerous. Of course, you don’t want to overregulate to the point where innovation is stifled. Therefore, we believe that companies should be allowed to experiment with new AI technologies, but as soon as they begin to touch the public, regulators need to weigh in. Let us know your thoughts!
Short Takes
Some unfortunate big wins for big oil: Exxon won the New York climate change case, and Saudi Aramco, the world’s most valuable public company, saw its shares jump 10 percent in its trading debut.
Listen to a recording by a JPMorgan employee and Jimmy Kennedy, a former NFL player, exposing racism in one of the bank branches.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s leader and the world’s most ironic Nobel Peace Prize laureate, spoke at the International Court of Justice about the country’s genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority.
China is leading in the number of journalists jailed, putting it ahead of Turkey.
Tomorrow Today
🎟️ Date and time for the next one to be announced soon!
We’re thinking February.
Change cannot be achieved alone, only together. In that spirit, we are hosting community events at our space in New York City. Eat some food, learn from some seasoned, unconventional activists, and meet others aspiring to change the world!
Why are we hosting this?
For us, community is the center of everything. In an age of prolific digitization, there's a great need for greater human connection. It's almost necessary to carve out time and space to purposefully engage in person. While it's amazing to be able to discuss and interact with multiple people online and exchange stories and insights, we don't think anything beats the experience of sharing a meal.
Igniting Tomorrow
💰 $100k-$250k Pre-Seed Funding
UPDATE: We’ve already had multiple people reach out and share their ideas. It gets us super excited to learn more about the projects and companies everyone is working on. Please keep reaching out. We’ll be releasing more information around this in the upcoming year.
Many of you are either already working on a number of world-changing things or have ideas bursting out of you every day. Our goal is to see unconventional activists like you succeed. Let us help connect you into the space and access the financing you need to get started. If you’d like to share your ideas (or know a friend working on something exciting), please reply to this email!
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