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Two computer science majors from the University of Chicago (UChicago) are making significant strides in advancing improvements in the criminal justice system. Death Of Laquan McDonald Inspired The Need For Change Co-founders Leslie Jones-Dove and Devshi Mehrotra refused to look the other way following two tragedies at the hands of police. In 2015, while attending the University of Chicago in Illinois as freshmen, Jones-Dove and Mehrotra learned of dash cam footage that was released showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being fatally shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke on Oct. 20, 2014, ABC-7 Chicago reports. The incident sparked protests across the city and demonstrations on the University of Chicago campus. For the duo, it served as a launch pad for their interest in the intersection of technology and criminal justice. According to The Guardian, a police union official said McDonald had “lunged at police” before the officer fired shots. However, the video footage told a different...
Preparation for life after death, though daunting, is essential. This can take root in several forms, including a will or trust. A thorough understanding of the differences between the two is paramount to making the right decision for the beneficiaries who will seize control of the mentioned assets.
If you take a look at Prince’s career, it’s a known fact that the words “Purple Rain” was a pivotal moment in his impact across industries. As previously reported by AfroTech, it’s the name of the music legend’s best-selling album. The phrase “Purple Rain” is also tied to his film debut in 1984, which went on to receive an Academy Award for “Best Original Song Score” and a Grammy for “ Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special .” Prince’s influence is clear, which is why his estate recently won a trademark lawsuit.
Six years after the passing of the legendary musician Prince, a ruling has ended the battle over his estate. Since Prince had no will, children, or spouse, this placed six half-siblings as his legal heirs and catalyzed the probate process in court to divide Prince’s estate. In January, there was progress as the heirs closed a deal with the Internal Revenue Service marking the tax valuation of the estate to $156 million, according to Billboard. One month later, the judge recommended turning Prince’s holdings into limited liability companies (LLCs). The move decreased the estate’s tax exposure and solidified a management plan for how the parties involved could collaborate to administer music and other jointly-held assets. Three of Prince’s half-siblings, Tyka Nelson, Omarr Baker, and Alfred Jackson, sold all or most of their shares of the estate to Prince Oat Holdings LLC (Primary Wave). The remaining three reportedly retained their stakes and partnered with advisors L. Londell...
When Rashad Bailey started his Dinner and A Movie restaurant, he had high hopes for bringing good food and entertainment to the citizens of Chicago, IL. But soon after his business opened, the trouble started. This trouble ultimately led to the City of Chicago shutting down the restaurant, which Bailey believes is solely based on race.
There’s no question that Prince is a musical legend. There’s also no question that his legend status extends above and beyond Black music and culture — and has, instead, entered the pop culture zeitgeist . But when one truly considers the numbers achieved by the musical great — and at the time he did it — it makes his accomplishments even more impressive. According to Forbes, Prince Rogers Nelson — as he was called on the day of his birth — sold more than 100 million units of his songs from the day of their first release in the 1970s until the day he died in April 2016. That number, as we will see, spiked significantly in the wake of his death. Despite his musical prowess, however, some songs — and albums — were more popular than others. It’s perhaps unsurprising that “ Purple Rain ” — perhaps his best-known album thanks to the super-smash song, “When Doves Cry” — is the best-selling album of his career. “Purple Rain had 3,107,000 buyers in the Soundscan Era, that is 1992 to date,...
In 2016, the world lost an icon through singer and songwriter Prince Rogers Nelson. Now, Complex reports that an agreement on the value and administrator of his estate has been made about six years following the untimely passing of the superstar. A decision on the estate’s value was made by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Comerica Bank & Trust due to the fact that there was no will left behind by the singer. The Minneapolis native’s estate is valued at $156.4 million and will now be evenly distributed among music company, Primary Wave, and the late singer’s three oldest heirs.
On Feb. 12, 2021, the Minneapolis Police Department announced that its officers are banned from using facial recognition software when they’re in the process of apprehending suspects. According to TechCrunch, the problematic police department — best known for being the home of the officers who killed George Floyd last summer — is known for having a “relationship” with Clearview AI, a firm with a record of “scraping” images from social media networks and selling them, wholesale, to police departments and federal law enforcement agencies. 13 members of the city council — with no opposition — voted in favor of banning facial recognition software usage. And Minneapolis is just the latest city to join in the usage ban, joining Boston and San Francisco in this landmark move. However, the bans haven’t included selling the images to private companies — which many privacy experts cite as a growing concern. But there’s another, more salient reason why facial recognition software is facing...
As efforts to stop police brutality and defund the police continue, Ford Motor Company employees are taking direct action. According to The Verge , a group of Ford employees has asked the automaker to stop making the Ford Police Interceptor and other pursuit-rated utility vehicles , which are built specifically for law enforcement. Also, new technologies are tested in Ford’s cop cars that benefit their overall lineup. “We cannot claim to support the fight against systemic racism while supplying and supporting the very systems that perpetrate violence against Black Americans,” the group wrote, according to Jalopnik. “Throughout our history, the vehicles that Ford employees design and build have been used as accessories to police brutality and oppression.” In response to the employee’s concerns, Ford CEO Jim Hackett has told employees that they will continue their commitment to law enforcement as he doesn’t think it’s “controversial that the Ford Police Interceptor helps officers do...
This past Wednesday, Amazon announced in a blog post that they’re placing a one-year ban on police’s use of facial recognition technology. Part of their statement goes as follows: “We’ve advocated that governments should put in place stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology, and in recent days, Congress appears ready to take on this challenge. We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested.” This announcement could be in response to the protests and uprisings that have occurred as a result of all the recent police killings and brutality. Although their statement postpones their involvement in endorsing this technology for law enforcement for a year, it doesn’t address what will happen once the ban expires. On the heels of this announcement, many were outraged at the time limit placed on the ban, expressing that it’s not enough to simply forbid the sale of...
As awareness around facial recognition continues to grow, a primary concern has been its potential to open up new frameworks for mass surveillance. That concern grew even more pressing as people realized that facial recognition could potentially be used in body cameras, essentially creating roving, real-time surveillance systems on the chests of police. On Thursday, Axon — the company that created the Taser and supplies 47 out of the 69 largest police agencies in the United States with body cameras and software — announced a ban on the use of facial recognition on its devices . Although this can certainly be considered a temporary victory, Axon’s announcement must be carefully analyzed — both within social contexts, the words that the company used, and its own history. Axon’s decision comes from the first report of an AI and Policing Technology Ethics Board that the company originally formed in April of 2018. The board was developed to lead Axon in ethically developing products and...
On Wednesday, San Francisco announced District Attorney George Gascón’s plans to implement a new artificial intelligence tool to stop bias when charging people with crimes. According to the San Francisco Examiner, the tool will be implemented on July 1. The bias mitigation tool works by removing identifying information from police reports. Anything that could hint at a person’s race will be taken out, including descriptions of eye and hair color. However, it’s not just physical descriptors that could imply somebody’s race. The program will remove peoples’ names, locations, and neighborhoods from reports too. A spokesperson for the DA also told the Verge that details about police officers will be taken out. The bias mitigation tool was developed by Alex Chohlas-Wood and a team at the Stanford Computational Policy Lab. The Verge noted that the same developer also came up with the New York Police Department’s Patternizr System. AI is generally known for introducing or reinforcing...
The use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement continues to be a concern for civil rights and privacy advocates. Many point out its potential to worsen pre-existing surveillance of marginalized communities. With that in mind, San Francisco is quickly on its way to becoming the first city to ban facial recognition surveillance. Back in February , San Francisco’s lawmakers proposed the Stop Secret Surveillance Ordinance that would restrict all city departments from using facial recognition tech. In addition, they’d need board approval to purchase any new surveillance devices. Although the proposal has the support of groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one group is notably pushing back: police. The San Francisco Police Officers Association (SFPOA) has not only opposed the bill but Supervisor Aaron Peskin — who introduced the legislation — said his office has been bombarded with identical emails originating from the Police...