Edition 86: using artificial intelligence for good

(This newsletter was sent to email subscribers on January 13, 2021.)

Happy Wednesday, Below the Folders. It sounds like a scene from a movie, but it’s real: Two burglars in England were arrested after one accidentally pocket dialed the police! The emergency number in the U.K. is 999, which police say the man unknowingly pressed when he sat on his phone. Officers could hear the whole burglary and were still on the line when colleagues arrived at the scene. Those burglars are probably wishing they could go back and change a couple things (maybe starting with not committing a crime); here’s a few stories we don’t want you to accidentally miss.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Emotional and physical abuse reported in Irish mother-and-baby homes

Tue Jan 12

A devastating report has revealed that 9,000 children died in Ireland’s former church-run homes for unwed mothers, accounting for roughly 15% of all children who were born or lived there over the 80 years. While the last of these homes closed in 1998, the investigation began in 2014, after nearly 800 infants and children were discovered in an unmarked mass grave at one of the homes.

Sadly, that’s not all. The nearly 3,000-page report also found that many of the 56,000 unmarried mothers who lived in these homes were subjected to emotional and physical abuse, including unethical vaccine trials. Oftentimes, the harshest treatment came from the women’s own immediate families. Many are blaming an oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture.

Who was running these homes?

The homes, run by nuns and members of the Roman Catholic Church, had received funding from the state and often also acted as adoption agencies. While this specific report focused on 18 institutions (all of which have been shut down), some claim that many women and children at other state-run hospitals or private institutions likely suffered similar conditions. For now, survivors are seeing this as a small step towards accountability.

P.S. This story is considered a blindspot for people on the right with 42% of reported news sources leaning left. How do we know? We learned from Ground News, a news source comparison platform that empowers you to compare how outlets from the left, center, and right are covering a story. To try it for yourself, download the free Ground News App or Browser Extension.

SOURCES: NBC News, The New York Times, BBC News, CNN

VIOLENCE

Hazaras targeted in Pakistan and Afghanistan by Sunni extremists

Tue Jan 12

A protest ended in Pakistan over the weekend after the burial of 11 Hazara coal miners who were killed by the Islamic State. The Shia Hazara community agreed to bury the bodies only after Prime Minister Imran Khan visited and promised compensation for those killed. But these attacks are nothing new for the minority Shia Muslim group, who are often targeted by Sunni extremist groups such as the Taliban and Islamic State.

Who are the Hazaras?

Living mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Hazaras are Persian-speaking and believed to be descendants of Genghis Khan. They have shared a history of persecution in both Afghanistan and Pakistan that dates back centuries. For example, in the late 1900s, a Pashtun king in Afghanistan ordered the killing of all Shias.

Once thought to be almost 70% of the population in Afghanistan, they now make up just ~20%. Local officials estimate their current population is around 500,000 as bombings and attacks have killed hundreds in recent years.

• In 2013, three separate bombings in the Hazara neighborhoods of Quetta, Pakistan killed more than 200 people
• In 2017, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a bus station in Quetta killing 15 and injuring at least 40 others
• In April 2020, a suicide bomber targeted a market in Quetta and killed 18 people
• In the latest attack on January 3rd, armed Islamic State terrorists abducted and killed 11 coal miners in a small mining town outside Quetta

SOURCES: The New York Times, The Indian Express, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, Hindustan Times

TECHNOLOGY

Teen develops tool to detect ‘deepfake’ videos

Tue Jan 12

A teenager in Ireland is being celebrated for developing technology to help detect deepfake media online. Deepfakes are fake images created from a mix of real ones using artificial intelligence, often to make someone look like they are doing or saying something they never did.

The 17-year-old student, Gregory Tarr, improved on the current technology used to spot deepfake videos in both speed and efficiency. The young computer programmer, who is self taught, beat out over 1,300 other projects to be named the 2021 BT Young Scientist & Technologist of the year. The hope is that this tool can be used at scale to filter our deepfake content online.

Previously on Below the Fold: We discussed the scary new reality of bots creating fake nudes to target women.

SOURCES: The Irish Times, Irish Central, Euro News

Be among the first to get this news by subscribing to the Below the Fold newsletter here

That’s all for today. Have a magical week.✨