5.3

  • Google “What age groups use Facebook” vs “… TikTok”? What does the data say? Is there purposeful exclusion in these platforms? Is it harmful? Should it be corrected? Is it good business?
  • Facebook has more of a older age group and I think tik tok has a younger age group. I don’t think its harmful, but I think tik tok has more influence on future generations. Overall, 18 percent of users belonged to the 18 to 24-year age group. Facebook’s smallest audience can be found amongst teen users, with around one in every twenty users being aged between 13 to 17 years. The percentage of U.S.-based TikTok users by age: 10-19 – 32.5%, 20-29 – 29.5%, 30-39 – 16.4%, 40-49 – 13.9%, 50+ – 7.1%. This means that the TikTok userbase is aging up.
  • Why do virtual assistants have female voices? Amazon, Alexa Google, Apple Siri. Was this purposeful? Is it harmful? Should it be corrected? Is it good business?
  • The use of female voices are influenced by the belief of it to be percieved that female voices helpful. As tech futurist and author Bernard Marr tells Cosmopolitan UK, “Research might suggest that humans have a preference for the sound of female voices, and studies have found that female voices tend to articulate vowel sounds more clearly which makes them easier to understand.
  • Talk about an algorithm that influences your decisions, think about these companies (ie FAANG - Facebook, Amazon, Apple,Netflix, Google)
  • An algorithm that a lot of companies use is that they run a lot of advertisements on their page. Based on the content that they watch / search, ads will pop up related to whatever their video watch history or search history is

Video Notes

  1. Does the owner of the computer think this was intentional?
    • The owner thinks it is intentional because he is too dark to get facial recognition
  2. If yes or no, justify you conclusion.
    • The owner thinks it is intentional because he is too dark to get facial recognition
  3. How do you think this happened?
    • This happened because of a lack of testing for their code and didn’t account for all colors of skin for facial recognition
  4. Is this harmful? Was it intended to be harmful or exclude?
    • It is harmful because that video is putting the image that the facial recognition is racist
  5. Should it be corrected?
    • Yes it should be corrected because they don’t want to be known as a racist company
  6. What would you or should you do to produce a better outcome?
    • Test the feature on all colors of skin and correct any errors that come out of it

5.4 Notes

  1. We have all experienced Crowdsourcing by using external data through API’s, namely RapidAPI. This data has influenced how we code and shown possibilities in obtaining and analyzing data. Discuss APIs you have used.
    • I used a basketball API based on NBA Players with statistics of their points per game, rebounds per game, and assists
    • Some other people used API’s that gave you words for hangman
  2. We have all participated in code Crowdsourcing by using GitHub. Many of you have forked from the Teacher repository, or exchanged code with fellow students. Not only can we analyze GitHub code, but we can obtain profiles and history about the persons coding history. What is the biggest discovery you have found in GitHub?
    • I am able to clone repositories and wget certain files so that can save a substantial amount of time
  3. Kaggle datasets for code and science exploration. The avenue of data points us youtube or netflix channels. Analyzing crowd data helps us make decisions. Exam top 10 to 20. Did you see anything interesting?
    • I noticed that all of the trending sets are very unique and different from each other, they each have their own category and connect in different ways. For example, there is a good amount pertaining to social media such as youtube.

Summary

  • In reflection, it is clear that technology and data are increasingly influential in our daily lives and decision-making. We have seen the impact of algorithms in our online behavior and consumption habits, such as in the case of advertisements based on our search and watch history. Additionally, the use of APIs and crowdsourcing on platforms like GitHub and Kaggle have opened up avenues for data exploration and have allowed us to make informed decisions. One issue that emerged is the lack of representation in facial recognition technology, as the owner of the computer felt it was intentional due to the lack of recognition of his skin color. This highlights the importance of thorough testing and consideration of diverse populations in technology development.