Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

What went wrong in Arizona for COVID-19 cases to sky rocket? Experts weigh in – FOX 10 News Phoenix

What went wrong in Arizona for COVID-19 cases to sky rocket? Experts weigh in

Arizona is now a COVID-19 hot spot as cases and hospitalizations continue to break records nearly everyday. Some say the state has lacked direction from the governor, but are also saying young people are main drivers in the uptick.

PHOENIX - Arizona is now one of the worst coronavirus hotspots anywhere in the world. Per capita cases in the state are outpacing every country in Europe.

Health officials are now left with the question of, "What went wrong?"

In a Thursday news conference, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says this is Arizona's first wave of the virus as hospital beds arefilling up and restaurants are shutting down, again.

Thegovernor'soffice responded to this reportby saying,Wefollowedall CDC guidelines in trying to make the best decisions possible for the resident's of Arizona.

I think it starts at the top. I think that we havent seen great leadership at the top," saysDana Marie Kennedy, director at Arizona's AARP chapter.

RELATED:Gov. Ducey urges Arizonans to stay at home amid rising COVID-19 cases; expect hospital surge capacity

She demanded more safety and transparency months ago and even now sees a clear lack of leadership and communication illustrated by elected officials holding unmasking rallies.

She blames young adults for crowding into bars, too. In Arizona, I can go to a bar and nightclub tonight and have a great time. But what Icant do, is if my mom or grandmother was in a facility, I cannot go visit them," Kennedy said.

Arizona was also slow to start testing, and now people wait in line for hours for a test. Securing protective gear took too long as well.

The state never did mandate mask-wearing, but instead left it to local governmentsto decide.

RELATED:Arizona COVID-19 cases rise by over 3K for 4th day in week

The once fairly flat curve shot up, higher than New York ever saw.

The policy has to be aggressive enough that it influences human behavior in a way that is meaningful," saidWill Humble, former director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Gov.Ducey repeatedly saidan increase in cases was always expected.

We have an advantage over other states that had outbreaks early on. We have more time to prepare," Ducey said.

RELATED:Trump orders flags lowered to half-staff for three days for those who died from COVID-19

Even now, as other hotspots states like Texas and Florida scale back, Arizona is not.

The governor is instead asking people to stay home, like the order he lifted more than a month ago.

The valley is starting to see our first enforcement of large gatherings and social distancing. Several Scottsdale bars have been put on notice and will be closed for the weekend.

If mask-wearing is working,we should see the curve startto flatten againsometime in July.

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What went wrong in Arizona for COVID-19 cases to sky rocket? Experts weigh in - FOX 10 News Phoenix

Human Behavior

Indias Economy : Aftermath of COVID19 – Observer Research Foundation

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This time it is truly different

Financial market punditry revels in truisms. One of them is the old chestnut about this time its different. There is an inherent, somewhat justified skepticism about this hypothesis, borne out by decades (sometimes centuries) of mean reversion. Most things, certainly financial market variables, tend to over time revert to an estimated mean (or average). However, this time it does seem rather different, at least different from what the generations living today have experienced.

The best-case scenario is the development of a vaccine or therapeutic soon enough. However, till a scalable solution is found, not only will large swathes of businessesrestaurants, hotels, airlinesbe wiped off, basic human behavior that underpins business and commerce will also change. As Prof. Kaushik Basu says, no economist writes down can talk as an assumption. It is regarded as a given. Being able to talk, walk up to the desk, argue and form relationships are core to how businesses are run take that away, and mankind needs a different paradigm to set the rules of business.

Social media tends to exaggerate political soundbytes. Despite all the noise on conflicts around the world (US-China, India-China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Middle East), the world is a relatively peaceful place in terms of physical security. Warzones are few, hot conflicts engendering loss of civilian lives and properties are even fewer in the context of the 20th century history. There is however a distinct turn in economic behavior. The post-World War II journey towards greater integration of trade, openness to immigration, expansion of the global commons for business and commerce is being reversed. Protectionism has become a politically respected word in economic policy lexicon, and for good or for worse there is increasing resonance around the Thomas Piketty-style inequality stories.

Indias growth was slowing down in a secular trend even before the advent of COVID-19 and lockdown-related shocks. The slowdown has exacerbated the twin balance-sheet issue confronting India. This comprises stretched corporate leverage and concomitantly stressed bank (and Non Banking Financial Companies, or NBFC) balance sheets. Consequently, the financial systemwhich is the primary conduit and increasingly the primary source of intervention in the real economyis far too weak to effectively play a big part. 2020 was supposed to be a break-out yearaided by some global tailwinds and base effect, there was expectations of a bounce-back in growth. Unfortunately, COVID-19 put paid to those calculations. In short, India is faced with a double-jeopardy scenarioa weakening base of growth and a weakened set of financial institutions that are unable to front-load risk-taking. Add to it the unwillingness (or the inability) of the government to print money to take us out of this slowdown.

In this somewhat depressing scenario, there are some very important silver linings. They will be crucial for India to leverage while crafting a break-out strategy. For starters, the Foreign Exchange (Forex) constraint, one of Indias eternal constraints in economic policymaking, is largely absent. This is quite remarkable, given the worsening of external accounts of several Emerging Markets (EM) in the current crisis. Thanks to robust foreign equity flows, lower Current Account Deficit (CAD) and aggressive dollar buying by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Indias Forex reserves today top US$500 billion. This providese a big policy cushionone that hasusually not been available to India during previous crises.

Second, nearly the entire public debt is financed via local savings, making it Indias unique strength for several decades now. There is no dependence, barring for tactical liquidity purposes in very small doses, on external foreign investment to fund Indias fiscal deficit (fisc). While the conventional commentaryincluding by Credit Rating Agencies (CRA)lament Indias high levels of sovereign debt, the fact is that the entire debt is financed locally. In other words, Indias public debt is financed by Indian Rupee (INR) capital, ie, in a currency which Government of India, the borrower, also enjoys a seigniorage (or power to print the currency) in.

While policy impulses, simplified tax regimes and all that passes off as reforms can play a part, the real heavy lifting in a post-COVID-19 strategy has to be government spending. With private discretionary consumption likely to remain muted for some time, private corporate sector investment would likely take longer, and global trade and commerce remaining both slow and mired in the new protectionist debatesgovernment spend is the only viable game in town. Its not a surprise therefore to see the level of fiscal stimuli announced in several countries around the world, going up to as much as 10-20% of gross domestic product (GDP). The Indian fiscal intervention, till now, has been small and cautious. But there have been promises of more as the lockdown is lifted. It is really not an option, so the question around a bigger fiscal push has to be a question of when rather than if.

For the government to spend more, a viable financing plan is a sine qua non. Globally, developed countries are financing enhanced fisc via money-printing programmes (also called Quantitative Easing, or QE). India has the same option too, but (till now) has been strangely recalcitrant about exercising it. There is a fear that printing money will cause a run on the currency, with all its attendant issues. But given that India funds all its public debt via local savings (as discussed above), it is a risk that exists more in theory than in realms of plausible reality. Unless the government spending program sends the CAD sky-rocketing, there is very little risk to a wholesale devaluation of the currency. However, it is a fact that the government has held back on exercising this option.

The other option to fund an expanded fisc, with a fair assumption that tax revenues are going to fall short, is via an aggressive asset sales program. A fire sale of state assets is not usually a great strategy for managing taxpayer-owned assets, but if the expenditure is focused on creating new infrastructure assets, it would only mean swapping one type of public assets with another. In other words, if proceeds from (the planned) LIC stake sale are used to create (say) 5 new hospitals, it isnt really a dilution of taxpayer-ownership of economy, but merely swapping LIC shares for hospital ownership.

Maybe a variant of the Hobsons choice, but a choice that needs to be exercised.

For a very long time, inflation has been a primary concern for economic policymaking. This is driven by the importance of inflation in our political economy discourse. In recent times, India has sought to embrace a low inflation mantra as some sort of axiomatic truism. It climaxed into the Inflation Targeting law that formally gave the RBI an inflation target as its primary objective in policymaking. While it meant that India has seen record low average inflation rates for the last few years, it has also disturbed several other economic outcomes. Lower inflation has meant lower nominal GDP growth; this is the reason why a 6-7% growth in recent times didnt seem to feel like the 6-7% growth we saw earlier. Sans a higher nominal GDP growth, incomes dont grow as fast, demand doesnt go up as fast, tax revenues dont grow as fast. More importantly a higher inflation allows the government to inflate away debt faster and creates greater headroom for more debt to be taken for higher growth in the future.

Today, when the primary issue confronting us is a massive demand destruction, inflation is bound to trend lower. This could have the effect of a disastrous spiral as government is unable to mop up enough revenues, and also unable to raise more debt as underlying GDP nominal growth remains weak.

A variety of policy toolsfrom direct income support to dilution of Inflation Targeting mandate to RBI need to be used to ensure that Indias inflation remains solidly positive.

An era is fading away. An era of expanding global commons, free trade and global prosperity. The new era might well end up being a more dog-eat-dog world. But Indias opportunities remain immense not only because of its oft-repeated strengths of young population and big middle class. Our silver linings are bright, and COVID-19 has not destroyed our physical infrastructure. But government policymaking needs to be quick, adaptive and decisive if we are to escape a prolonged growth funk, something that India can ill-afford.

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Indias Economy : Aftermath of COVID19 - Observer Research Foundation

Human Behavior

Tweeting Our Way Through A Pandemic – American Council on Science and Health

The researchers made use of two datasets. C-Span provided information on the verified Twitter accounts of the members of the 116thCongress; Twitters interface provided the tweets. Using machine learning and algorithms, the researchers created a dataset linking each Congressperson with their COVID-19 related tweets and then went on to characterize the word frequency of those tweets. Using word frequency, how often a given word appears in a document, has, for some time, been a tool of scientists looking to understand our speech. It has been used to differentiate one writer from another. In this instance, they used word frequency to characterize all of the Congressional tweets from January 17thwhen COVID-19 was first mentioned until March 31st roughly three weeks after COVID-19 was declared a national emergency.

As the graphic demonstrates, Democrats and Republicans chose very different words to their perception of the pandemic. For example, crisis was used 7% more often by the Democrats while China was mention 5% more by Republicans. Democrats also were more likely to tweet about COVID-19 than their Republican counterparts. For every 45 Republican Congressional tweets, there were 71 tweets from the Democrats

To get a better handle on the possible polarization between the two parties, the researchers using these word frequencies sought to identify whether the tweet was from a Democrat or Republican. The idea was the more often they were correct in their identification, the more the tweet reflected the Republican or Democratic word choices, their language polarization, and the more the member of Congress reflected their partys viewpoint. The algorithm they developed correctly identified 70% of the tweets political party.

Polarization, as measured in this manner, changed over time. While it was initially low, meaning that the algorithm had difficulty correctly identifying Democratic from Republican tweet, but by February 9th,it quickly peaked partisan camps were fully formed. With a small decline in the next few weeks, polarization again rose as various relief packages were being considered, mid-March. Nearly 70% of tweets no longer shared common word choices, so not only were partisan camps formed, but in some senses, the lines were clearly drawn between the two.

Democrats discussing the issue earlier, more frequently, and with more emphasis on public health and direct aid to affected workers. By contrast, Republicans placed more emphasis on generalized national unity, China, and businesses.

What can we make of these findings? At a minimum, we see that tweets are reflective of political opinion and that our Congress failed to achieve any consensus on how best to manage this pandemic because they quickly viewed the situation through a political, partisan lens. As the researchers point out, this failure of consensus resulted in an un-coordinated governmental response at both the agency and cueing level by cueing, I refer to the examples set by our leadership over what to do personally.

We would like to believe that science, deductive reasoning with a multiplicity of proofs and refutations, is value-free. To a large extent, that may be truer in some fields like physics or chemistry. But science is grounded in our culture; for example, the traditional Eastern science of medicine differs quite a bit from that of Western medical science. When we are dealing with a science that is heavily entangled with human behavior, as is public health epidemiology, we do ourselves a disserve in not recognizing that aspect and taking it into account.

As the blame game continues over which faceless agency dropped the ball or offered misleading information it is worth taking a moment and considering the role of our elected leadership, not merely the President and the executive branch, but the legislative branch that provides the financial means for the executive to act. The responsibility for the failures to protect public health and the economy lies as much with our leadership as with the regulatory bodies, they seek to blame and shame. Might I suggest that as you decide who will be your local and Congressional representatives in the upcoming year, you consider how well they led and protected you during this time rather than make a choice on what they promise to do in the future.

Source: Elusive consensus: Polarization in elite communications on the COVID-19 pandemic Science Advances DOI: 1 0.1126/sciadv.abc2717

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Tweeting Our Way Through A Pandemic - American Council on Science and Health

Human Behavior

9 Signs That Prove Your Cat Loves You More Than Anything – Yahoo Lifestyle

Photo credit: Aleksandr Zubkov - Getty Images

From Oprah Magazine

Real talk: Does this cat love me, or does it love what I can do for it? It's a question many a cat parent has pondered.

Dr. Mikel Delgado, a cat behaviorist, confirmed that cats can, indeed, feel affection for humans. Cats can have a lot of the same emotions that we do, including liking to be around us and enjoying our presence, he says. I believe they are capable of enjoying relationships with us and even loving us.

Cats derive pleasure, safety, and comfort from their relationships with humans. However, all cats express their happiness with their human companions differently. Long story short? Cats have distinct personalities, just like people.

Some cats are more affectionate than others, or they're more obvious with their affection, Delgado explains. "For some cats, the way they show they love you is to want to be in the same room with you. For other cats, the way they show they love you is sitting on your chest and purring in your face.

Delgado gave us tips for interpreting cat behavior, no matter what kind of feline you have, you can see once and for all, that your cat does indeed love you.

Cats can love their humansbut not all cats can love the way we want them to. In order to make a great pet, it helps if a cat has become accustomed to human behavior from a young age.

Delgado cites a sensitive period in a kittens coming-of-age, between two to nine weeks, during which they become comfortable coexisting with people. Kittens that are handled by people at that time are going to be more open and trusting of people later in life, Delgado says. Dr. Sarah Nold, staff veterinarian at Trupanian, suggests that adopting a kitten up to seven weeks old for the speediest bonding.

When the sensitive period is over, a kitten can still learn to love a humanbut its a slower process. Even though cats are a domesticated species, theyre able to live independent of human care. A feral cat, for example, would never be wholly at ease with people; and likely, vice versa. Itd be like trying to tame a squirrel or raccoon. You wouldnt end up cuddling a raccoon, Delgado says.

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As for homing stray cats? That's a go, in certain situations. Some cats that live outside do get a lot of exposure to peoplethey just may have never lived in a home. They learned, through association, that people are good. They bring me food, maybe I should trust them. But it'll be an adjustment to living indoors," Delgado says.

Then, look out for these behaviors.

They treat you like youre a cat. When cats don't feel threatened by other cats, they will show affection by rubbing on them, sleeping near them, and being in their presence. If your cat replicates those behaviors with you, Delgado says it has officially imprinted on you.

They rub against you. Delgado says this is the "telltale sign" your cat has accepted you into its social group.

They follow you into a room. If a cat is following you around, that means it wants to be around you, according to Delgado.

They come into your bedroom while you're sleeping. Some cats are threatened by a humans' size. As a result, they may feel safer around humans when they're lying on a bed, compared to walking around.

They blink their eyes slowly. Happy cats tend to blink their eyes slowly and softly. Humans can mimic this gesture, and communicate with their cats. "Softening your gaze is definitely a good way to take the tension out of the space," Delgado says.

They knead their paws like a kitten. Ever seen your cat pushing in and out with its front paws? That's a gesture kittens make when they want their mother to release milk. "When they do that to you, it's like you're mommy," Delgado says, and it's another sign your cat is comfortable with you.

They make the right kind of meow. According to Delgado, "meowing" is a way for cats to communicate with people. "It's a very effective way of pushing buttons and pulling at our heartstrings and getting us to do whatever they want, whether it's giving them treats or attention," Delgado says.

They show their bellyin some cases. Some cats expose their bellies as a sign of relaxation and trust. Other cats, according to Delgado, show their bellies because they want to play.

They show their tail, too. Once again, the meaning of this gesture depends on the cat. "Some cats only have an active tail when they're irritated," Delgado says. However, it can also be a sign of affection.

According to Delgado, the key to a cat's happiness is setting up an environment in which cats can express behaviors that are natural to them. Be the doer of everything the cat loves: Providing treats, and playing hard to get. Also, Nold suggests getting your feline friend a climbing tree.

"Then, cats can really build trust and a bond," Delgado says.

Generally speaking, Delgado says, cat behavior is consistent between breeds. Whereas dogs were bred to replicate different behaviors, the same isn't true for cats, which were bred for looksnot personality.

"Some breeds are very active, like Abyssinians, and Siamese are known to be vocal, but as far as like body language and interactions with people, they're general across all cat breeds," Delgado says.

As a cat owner, your impulse may be to immediately cuddle with your buddy. But Delgado recommends letting your cat take charge of interactions. We know from research that cats actually prefer to be the one to approach you. And if you let them make the first move, you'll have a better interaction," Delgado says.

Over time, Delgado adds, your cat will trust you more, because you respect its limits. This dynamic explains why people who are allergic to cats tend to complain that cats love them. "They're totally avoiding the catand the cat is like, Ooh, I want to sit on that person because they're not being pushy."

All cats have different personalities. Sometimes, it's possible to ad0pt a kitten or cat with a certain kind of personality. Nold says humane societies and rescue centers work with cat behaviorists to evaluate cats' personalities. "Share what you're looking for the center you're adopting the cat from, " Nold says.

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9 Signs That Prove Your Cat Loves You More Than Anything - Yahoo Lifestyle

Human Behavior

Lisa Rinna Slams ‘Karens’ Who Are ‘Begging’ QVC to Fire Her Because of Her Political Views – Yahoo! Voices

Lisa Rinna won't let anyone stop her from voicing her political views.

The designer of the Lisa Rinna Collection, which is soldexclusively at QVC, spoke out on her Instagram Story on Wednesday after critics she described as "Karens" allegedly complained to the company and attempted to get her booted because of her political beliefs.

"I am sad to report it would now seem I can't use my platform to inform or question or say how I feel politically because the Karen's have bombarded QVC begging them to fire me and saying they will no longer buy my clothes," Rinna wrote.

"It is a shame that I must be muzzled in order to support my family but that it just what it is. Remember you know how I feel. Use your voice and vote," she continued.

Lisa Rinna/Instagram

In another post on her Instagram Story filled with stickers that said "QUEER," "PROUD TO BE PROUD," "BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTERS," and "THIS FIGHT AIN'T OVER," Rinna made it clear that she's proud to voice her opinions. "I will be on the right side of history and in the end THAT IS WHAT MATTERS MOST," she wrote.

RELATED: Cities Across the Country Show Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement with Street Murals

The internet has started using the name "Karen" to describe a woman who acts entitled or demanding beyond what is considered appropriate.The New York Times described a "Karen" as the "policewomen of all human behavior" in a 2019 piece.

John Tsiavis/Bravo

While it's not exactly clear which of Rinna's social media posts the "Karens" were upset by, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hillsstar, 56, has posted in support of the Black Lives Matter movement numerous times, Pride Month and the recent Supreme Court decision prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ people in the workplace.

One day after Rinna put her haters on blast, the star shared another message on her Instagram Story vowing that she will continue to speak her mind.

Lisa Rinna/Instagram

"I have decided not to shut up. Ever," she wrote, adding the stickers "Speak Up," "Vote" and "Black Lives Matter."

"And I will take whatever consequences come with standing in my truth! And... f--k off 'Karen.'"

The Bravo star launched her best-selling lineon QVC in 2012.

PEOPLE has reached out to Rinna's rep and QVC for comment.

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Lisa Rinna Slams 'Karens' Who Are 'Begging' QVC to Fire Her Because of Her Political Views - Yahoo! Voices

Human Behavior

Ugandas Ik are not Unbelievably Selfish and Mean – Newswise

Newswise The Ik, a small ethnic group in Uganda, are not incredibly selfish and mean as portrayed in a 1972 book by a prominent anthropologist, according to a Rutgers-led study.

Instead, the Ik are quite cooperative and generous with one another, and their culture features many traits that encourage generosity, according to the study in the journalEvolutionary Human Sciences.

The Mountain People,an ethnography by anthropologist Colin M. Turnbull,made a big splash for an academic work. The New York Times and Time magazine reviewed the book, which inspired a stage play, and physician Lewis Thomas included an essay about the Ik in his bestselling book The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher.

The Ik live in the far northeast corner of Uganda, near its borders with Kenya and South Sudan. A Rutgers-led team of scientists studied them as part of The Human Generosity Project, a transdisciplinary effort to better understand generosity and other forms of cooperation among people around the world.

The scientists included the Ik in their project because of Turnbulls claim that, far from being generous, the Ik were extraordinarily selfish and mean. He attributed the selfish behaviors he witnessed to a culture of selfishness.

Lead author Cathryn Townsend, a former Rutgers post-doctoral scientist and faculty member now at Baylor University, spent 2016 with the Ik and returned briefly in 2017 and 2018. She discovered that their culture includes many traits that encourage generosity. For example, a favorite Ik saying istomora marang,which means its good to share, and many Ik believe that Earth spirits calledkijawikamonitor peoples behavior, punish those who fail to share and reward the very generous.

Townsendalso documented Ik generosity quantitatively using an experimental game, finding theyre no less generous, on average, than any of the hundreds of other groups of people in the world who have played the same game.

Why, then, did Turnbull observe so much selfishness among the Ik? Although Turnbull was aware that they experienced a severe famine while he was there, he failed to appreciate the impact starvation has on human behavior. Instead, he followed a common tendency among cultural anthropologists to attribute all human behavior to culture.

One implication of Townsends work is that we must always consider the possibility that factors other than culture, including but not limited to starvation, can also shape human behavior, said senior authorLee Cronk,a professor in theDepartment of Anthropologyin theSchool of Arts and SciencesatRutgers UniversityNew Brunswick.Another implication is that we can no longer use the Ik as an example of a society that has embraced selfishness. Far from being an exception, the Ik are just as cooperative and generous as other people around the world. They do not deserve the reputation they have been given by Turnbulls book.

Townsend plans to return to the Ik to continue her studies of how they cooperate. She will be looking in particular at how they are interdependent with one another.

Coauthors include Athena Aktipis at Arizona State University and Daniel Balliet at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

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Ugandas Ik are not Unbelievably Selfish and Mean - Newswise

Human Behavior

Cape Coral teen already published author, continues to write and inspire others – Wink News

CAPE CORAL

This Cape Coral teen isnt old enough to drive a car, but hes already a published author.

If you really wanna do something, then dont really be scared to show it to people; if you wanna write a book, said Humberto Carralero.

The now 15-year-old wrote and published his own book at just 14 years of age.

Sometimes people dont believe me until I show them that I have published a book, he said.

His father says hes very proud. My son is a very intelligent boy and he did hard work with the book. He worked many hours, all day, all the time, he said.

Its about survival and how a humans moral compass can change and how they can be driven to a primitive state, which is why its called The State of Nature,' Carralero said.

He studied human behavior as he moved from country to country.

I was born in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. I then went to Cuba for a while. After that, I went to Spain; then I went to Canada, he said.

Now, hes in Cape Coral and working on his next novel while watching this one reach people across the United States.

Most of the copies have been sold in Miami, he said. I saw one that sold in Detroit, Michigan, so thats really exciting.

Sharing stories and inspiring people to type toward their dreams.

The world traveler says hes considering a career in foreign affairs. Hes continuing to post chapters of his latest book on his website.

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Cape Coral teen already published author, continues to write and inspire others - Wink News

Human Behavior

How Coronavirus and Protests Broke Artificial Intelligence And Why Its A Good Thing – Observer

Until February 2020, Amazon thought that the algorithms that controlled everything from their shelf space to their promoted products were practically unbreakable. For years they had used simple and effective artificial intelligence (AI) to predict buying patterns, and planned their stock levels, marketing, and much more based on a simple question: who usually buys what?

Yet as COVID-19 swept the globe they found that the technology that they relied on was much more shakable than they had thought. As sales of hand sanitizer, face masks, and toilet paper soared, sites such as Amazon found that their automated systems were rendered almost useless as AI models were thrown into utter disarray.

Elsewhere, the use of AI in everything from journalism to policing has been called into question. As long-overdue action on racial inequalities in the US has been demanded in recent weeks, companies have been challenged for using technology that regularly displays sometimes catastrophic ethnic biases.

Microsoft was recently held to account after the AI algorithms that it used on its MSN news website confused mixed-race members of girlband Little Mix, and many companies have now suspended the sale of facial recognition technologies to law enforcement agencies after it was revealed that they are significantly less effective at identifying images of minority individuals, leading to potentially inaccurate leads being pursued by police.

The past month has brought many issues of racial and economic injustice into sharp relief, says Rediet Abebe, an incoming assistant professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. AI researchers are grappling with what our role should be in dismantling systemic racism, economic oppression, and other forms of injustice and discrimination. This has been an opportunity to reflect more deeply on our research practices, on whose problems we deem to be important, whom we aim to serve, whom we center, and how we conduct our research.

SEE ALSO: Artificial Intelligence Is on the Case in the Legal Profession

From the COVID-19 pandemic to the Black Lives Matter protests, 2020 has been a year characterized by global unpredictability and social upheaval. Technology has been a crucial medium of effecting change and keeping people safe, from test and track apps to the widespread use of social media to spread the word about protests and petitions. But amidst this, machine learning AI has sometimes failed to meet its remit, lagging behind rapid changes in social behavior and falling short on the very thing that it is supposed to do best: gauging the data fed into it and making smart choices.

The problem often lies not with the technology itself, but in a lack of data used to build algorithms, meaning that they fail to reflect the breadth of our society and the unpredictable nature of events and human behavior.

Most of the challenges to AI that have been identified by the pandemic relate to the substantial changes in behavior of people, and therefore in the accuracy of AI models of human behavior, says Douglas Fisher, an associate professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University. Right now, AI and machine learning systems are stovepiped, so that although a current machine learning system can make accurate predictions about behaviors under the conditions under which it learned them, the system has no broader knowledge.

The last few months have highlighted the need for greater nuance in AIin short, we need technology that can be more human. But in a society increasingly experimenting with using AI to carry out such crucial roles as identifying criminal suspects or managing food supply chains how can we ensure that machine learning models are sufficiently knowledgeable?

Most challenges related to machine learning over the past months result from change in data being fed into algorithms, explains Kasia Borowska, Managing Director of AI consultancy Brainpool.ai. What we see a lot of these days is companies building algorithms that just about do the job. They are not robust, not scalable, and prone to bias this has often been due to negligence or trying to cut costsbusinesses have clear objectives and these are often to do with saving money or simply automating manual processes, and often the ethical sideremoving biases or being prepared for changeisnt seen as the primary objective.

Kasia believes that both biases in AI algorithms and an inability to adapt to change and crisis stem from the same problem and present an opportunity to build better technology in the future. She argues that by investing in building better algorithms, issues such as bias and an inability to predict user behavior in times of crisis can be eliminated.

Although companies might previously have been loath to invest time and money into building datasets that did much more than the minimum that they needed to operate, she hopes that the combination of COVID and an increased awareness of machine learning biases might be the push that they need.

I think that a lot of businesses that have seen their machine learning struggle will now think twice before they try and deploy a solution that isnt robust hasnt been tested enough, she says. Hopefully the failure of some AI systems will motivate data scientists as well as corporations to invest time and resources in the background work ahead of jumping into the development of AI solutions we will see more effort being put into ensuring that AI products are robust and bias-free.

The failures of AI have been undeniably problematic, but perhaps they present an opportunity to build a smarter future. After all, in recent months we have also seen the potential of AI, with new outbreak risk software and deep learning models that help the medical community to predict drugs and treatments and develop prototype vaccines. These strides in progress demonstrate the power of combining smart technology with human intervention, and show that with the right data AI has the power to enact massive positive change.

This year has revealed the full scope of AI, laying bare the challenges that developers face alongside the potential for tremendous benefits. Building datasets that encompass the broadest scope of human experience may be challenging, but it will also make machine learning more equitable, more useful, and much more powerful. Its an opportunity that those in the field should be keen to corner.

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How Coronavirus and Protests Broke Artificial Intelligence And Why Its A Good Thing - Observer

Human Behavior

The benefits of effective chatbots on customer experience – ClickZ

30-second summary:

The pandemic has put a tremendous amount of pressure on companies to wind down operations quickly in order to abide by national safety standards and then ramp them up back up in order to start rebuilding the economy. Financial services companies, rental car companies even Airbnb have all felt the effects of halting business operations while having to process and facilitate large amounts of information with customers and employees.This has resulted in a greater reliance on chatbots to communicate information quickly and provide customers and employees with answers to their questions.

During the early stages of the pandemic, businesses saw large numbers of employees contacting HR with questions about insurance, office attendance, and more.

Companies may utilize chatbots to help respond to customer and employees questions more quickly.

Therefore, this leads to a large shift in the automation of relative tasks such as helping answer a question, providing an insurance quote or placing an order and freeing up humans to handle larger tasks.

These larger tasks could include changing insurance plans or making changes to that takeout order that a chatbot may not have the ability to do.

Chatbots are here to respond to initial customer inquiries and help respond to any general questions, leaving room for humans to handle the more complex questions. They also help reduce redundancy and create efficiency in the customer journey.

As technology evolves, chatbots are becoming more useful in many different ways. They are seen providing insurance quotes, filling orders, and even solving tech issues.

Thats not to say theyre replacing humans but rather serving as a third helping hand in the customer journey.

Its important to remember that chatbots are not humans, and their intention should never be to replace humans. Instead, theyre reading and understanding customers better in order to resemble a human and allow for a more thorough conversation.

For example, lets say someone goes to book a doctors appointment, and they select a 2:00 pm time slot. A few weeks later, they decide to book another appointment. The chatbot remembers that they previously chose 2:00 pm last time.

The chatbot will then ask if they would like to book the same time slot because the chatbot has memorized this specific pattern and behavior of the user.

Chatbots have the ability to do this by using natural language processing. This allows chatbots to analyze human language and better predict their behaviors. Therefore, chatbots are able to respond to people better and more accurately.

Before you start building your chatbot its important to analyze the conversations your customers are having and understand the language and tone they use. This will ultimately help your chatbot better serve your customers and employees knowing they are aligning on their vocabulary.

In addition, make sure your team incorporates someone who is knowledgeable in user experience. In doing so, they will be able to advise on where you can provide the most value in the chatbot experience.

While having the right experience is important, you should also be watching how much time you build versus test your chatbot.

It is equally as important to build the architecture and ensure youre gathering as much information about your target audience as possible. Its recommended that you spend of your time testing and building.

If youre building a web-based chatbot, its important to make use of Conversational UI such as buttons, carousels, date-pickers etc to help users provide the chatbot with relevant information and streamline the process.

Referring back to the appointment booking example, be sure to incorporate time slot buttons for the patient so that they are not required to guess when the provider is available on a certain day.

Incorporating modern web development into your chatbot is important for making sure your bot works on multiple platforms. Always think mobile-first before expanding.

If your chatbot can successfully assist your users via SMS, then it will be easy to make it work over the rest of the channels, including voice based conversations like Alexa.

In addition, this will make your chatbots more accessible, and as a result capable to cater to a much larger audience.

Living in a digitally forward time has resulted in customers and employees who want to be able to access information anytime anywhere. Making sure your chatbot is mobile-friendly will ensure that your audience can access the chatbot on their preferred device should that be a mobile device.

It can be difficult to make sure your chatbot covers all angles from day one, which could lead some conversations to a dead end. Companies can avoid this issue by providing an option for a person to take over the conversation when needed.

Additionally, companies should analyze conversation history on a regular basis, to look for conversations that might cause trouble, and update them to avoid the issues.

Were seeing an increase of chatbots used to connect and communicate with both customers and employees, almost acting as a helping hand to assist companies in solving customer and employee problems.

Common use cases where a chatbot comes in handy are assisting a customer who inquires about making a bill payment, getting an insurance quote, placing an order for food delivery, and contacting a bank for credit card management.

While internally, chatbots can be used to handle HR enquiries or manage internal help desk requests.

Although chatbots have grown in popularity and are using AI to become smarter and more efficient, there are many people who still prefer speaking with a human.

Its important that you always incorporate a human element into your chabot experience, whether that be eventually connecting the customer or employee to the representative on the other side of the chatbot or asking if they would like to be connected to the representative directly.

When built correctly and thoroughly, chatbots are a great tool for a business who is looking to streamline their customer service processes and provide a more successful customer experience.

Sebastian Witalec is a Senior Developer Advocate for Progress who specializes in Angular and NativeChat. He loves working on both serious and fun projects and one day he will use his robot army to conquer the world. You can connect with Sebastian on Twitter at @sebawita.

Rob Lauer is Senior Manager of Developer Relations at Progress and has a passion for mobile app development and the open web. You can find Rob rambling as @RobLauer on Twitter.

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The benefits of effective chatbots on customer experience - ClickZ

Human Behavior

Perfectly Flawed founder to lead with compassion on new state committee – MyWebTimes.com

A local man will work toward decreasing opioid deaths in a role he was recently appointed to.

This week, Luke Tomsha announced his appointment to the Governors Opioid Overdose Prevention and Recovery Steering Committee.

Tomsha, who was a heroin user for over 14 years, will serve on the committee as a person with lived experience.

It's important to have people who understand the need to lead with compassion. For decades, weve criminalized this human behavior, and it has made problems worse," Tomsha said.

"Outside of adding to stigma which prevents people from asking for help, it actually increases the risk of overdose death and has created further barriers to people getting jobs, education, housing, financial stability, etc. We need to be reducing barriers to re-entry, understand the reasons people choose drugs, what's going on and why they use them.

"Most importantly, if people are actively using we need to make sure people are aware of the dangers and risk and know that they have caring people they can trust to support them when theyre ready for help.

"People dont realize the impact one death can have, not just on a family, but an entire community."

The committee guides the work of the Illinois Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council as well as overseeing the ongoing implementation of the Statewide Opioid Action Plan.

The ultimate goal of the action plan is to reduce opioid-related deaths, which Tomsha said is a bipartisan issue that affects everyone.

Fueled by the growing opioid epidemic, drug overdoses have now become the leading cause of death nationwide for people under the age of 50, the Statewide Opioid Action Plans website says.

There's so much you can learn by having people with lived experience in the conversation and help meet the needs of this population," Tomsha said. Its refreshing theyve welcomed our voice."

He said one of the major issues he wants to tackle in his role is achieving social equity and addressing the disparities that exist when it comes to opioid deaths statewide.

Tomsha acknowledges that his personal situation isnt universal.

"I have been very blessed with the luxuries of a supportive family, community, social support, access to education, job, healthcare, food, shelter, privileges and second chances that many arent ever allowed.

"My survival is just one example of what we can hope to see if we can achieve equality in our systems where everyone is given a fair and equal chance."

He had served on the states Illinois Opioid Crisis Response Advisory Council for the past three years. In this new role, hes representing the people of Illinois, he said, not the Perfectly Flawed Foundation of which he is the founder and executive director.

The nonprofit organization is based in La Salle with the mission of strengthening communities affected by addiction by investing in children, individuals and education" and has worked to provide youth enrichment, education, peer and family support, harm reduction, public health, advocacy and outreach.

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Perfectly Flawed founder to lead with compassion on new state committee - MyWebTimes.com