Daily Archives: May 14, 2020

Twitter has appointed Stanford professor and former Google vice president Fei-Fei Li to its board as an independent director.

The social media platform said that Li's expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) will bring relevant perspectives to the board. Li's appointment may also help Twitter to attract top AI talent from other companies in Silicon Valley.

Li left her role as chief scientist of AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) at Google Cloud in October 2018 after being criticized for comments she made in relation to the controversial Project Maven initiative with the Pentagon, which saw Google AI used to identify drone targets from blurry drone video footage.

When details of the project emerged, Google employees objected, saying that they didn't want their AI technology used in military drones. Some quit in protest and around 4,000 staff signed a petition that called for "a clear policy stating that neither Google nor its contractors will ever build warfare technology."

While Li wasn't directly involved in the project, a leaked email suggested she was more concerned about what the public would make of Google's involvement in the project as opposed to the ethics of the project itself.

"This is red meat to the media to find all ways to damage Google," she wrote, according to a copy of the emailobtained by the Intercept. "You probably heardElon Muskand his comment about AI causing WW3."

"I don't know what would happen if the media starts picking up a theme that Google is secretly building AI weapons or AI technologies to enable weapons for the Defense industry. Google Cloud has been building our theme on Democratizing AI in 2017, and Diane (Greene, head of Google Cloud) and I have been talking about Humanistic AI for enterprise. I'd be super careful to protect these very positive images."

Up until that point, Li was seen very much as a rising star at Google. In the one year and 10 months she was there, she oversaw basic science AI research, all of Google Cloud's AI/ML products and engineering efforts, and a newGoogle AI lab in China.

While at Google she maintained strong links to Stanford and in March 2019 she launched the Stanford University Human-Centered AI Institute (HAI), which aims to advance AI research, education, policy and practice to benefit humanity.

"With unparalleled expertise in engineering, computer science and AI, Fei-Fei brings relevant perspectives to the board as Twitter continues to utilize technology to improve our service and achieve our long-term objectives," said Omid Kordestani, executive chairman of Twitter.

Twitter has been relatively slow off the mark in the AI race. Itacquired British start-up Magic Pony Technologies in 2016 for up to $150 million as part of an effort to beef up its AI credentials, but its AI efforts remain fairly small compared to other firms. It doesn't have the same reputation as companies like Google and Facebook when it comes to AI and machine-learning breakthroughs.

Today the company uses an AI technique called deep learning to recommend tweets to its users and it also uses AI to identify racist content and hate speech, or content from extremist groups.

Competition for AI talent is fierce in Silicon Valley and Twitter will no doubt be hoping that Li can bring in some big names in the AI world given she is one of the most respected AI leaders in the industry.

"Twitter is an incredible example of how technology can connect the world in powerful ways and I am honored to join the board at such an important time in the company's history," said Li.

"AI and machine learning can have an enormous impact on technology and the people who use it. I look forward to leveraging my experience for Twitter as it harnesses this technology to benefit everyone who uses the service."

Read more here:

Twitter adds former Google VP and A.I. guru Fei-Fei Li to board as it seeks to play catch up with Google and Facebook - CNBC

UPDATE: President Donald Trump has been on a tear the past 48 hours more than 100 tweets or retweets on Sunday, 25 and counting on Monday.

That has included heavily promoting the word Obamagate, coming in the aftermath of Yahoos storythat former President Barack Obama, in a private call with his administrations alums, called Trumps response to the coronavirus an absolute chaotic disaster. Obama also said that with the Justice Department decision to drop the Michael Flynn case, our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.

On Sunday, Trump retweeted a comment that included the hashtag Obamagate, and then followed up the reference with eight other uses of the term, so far. Its rooted in the conspiracy theory that the former president engaged in a surreptitious effort to take down his successor.

Asked at a press briefing on Monday what crime his predecessor committed, Trump said, You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody.

One of Flynns lawyers appeared on Fox News on Sunday and claimed that Flynns downfall was a set up orchestrated by Obama and other top members of his administration. But she did not provide evidence for the claim. In their motion to dismiss the Flynn case, the Justice Department did provide documents that showed that following a Jan. 5, 2017 briefing, Obama disclosed that he was aware of the phone conversation that Flynn had with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, the previous month.

As has been repeatedly noted, it was then-FBI Director James Comey, a frequent Trump target, who announced in late October 2016 that the Hillary Clinton email investigation was being reopened, something that is often cited among the reasons she lost the election.

The Justice Departments recent decision to drop its case against Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser, has given more fuel to the theories, including the revelation of FBI notes that have led to claims that the agency was trying to entrap him. But Flynn pled guilty to making false statements, and Trump said that he had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.

Trump has been an expert at pushing out not just conspiracy theories, but one- and two- word labels against opponents, hoping that they stick, but the Obamagate tag is certainly not original. Ever since the real Watergate, its been the common practice to try to affix the term -gate to any major scandal, usually with little success.

Meanwhile, Joe Bidens supporters responded with a tag of their own, TrumpGate, along with links to ads bashing Trump over his administrations response to the coronavirus crisis. Bidens rapid response director, Andrew Bates, tweeted, And we wonder why his handling of the coronavirus outbreak has been an unfocused, botched disaster.

Ava Duverney was among those who picked up on the Obamagate-Trumpgate tags.

The bots are out with #Obamagate on the same weekend that we hear President Obama publicly call that clown a catastrophe, she wrote. If this is the tactic, yall need new tactics. Try free tests for all regardless of symptoms. Food for the hungry. Unemployment strategy. Nah? Just bots? Ok. She then tweeted out a Biden ad.

Read more here:

Donald Trumps Obamagate Binge On Twitter Is Countered By Biden Supporters With Trumpgate - Deadline

Twitter really wants a piece of the performance advertising pie.

On Tuesday, Twitter said it has acquired interactive mobile ad company CrossInstall. No deal price was disclosed. All of CrossInstalls 70 employees will be joining Twitter.

CrossInstall is a mobile-only DSP focused on user acquisition with its own home-grown bidder and proprietary creative offering, including playables and other interactive ad units. The company was founded in 2012 and never raised any outside funding.

Most of CrossInstalls clients are gaming companies, such as Machine Zone, Jam City, SGN and PuzzleSocial.

Performance advertising, courtesy of gaming in particular, has proven resilient during the coronavirus crisis. Facebook, Google and Snap were all buoyed by direct response dollars in the first quarter, while Twitters DR business faltered.

Twitter has been gunning for more performance ad dollars for the last couple of years with mixed success. It plans to tap into CrossInstalls expertise in performance advertising and user acquisition strategies to help accelerate our advertising product road map in 2020 and beyond, Bruce Falck, Twitter general manager of revenue product, tweeted Tuesday morning.

We also believe this acquisition will further increase MoPubs value to mobile app developers, another critical part of our business, he tweeted.

On the companys Q1 earnings call in late April, CFO Ned Segal noted that developing revenue products is Twitters No. 1 priority, including its mobile app promotion (MAP) product, which is currently being piloted by a handful of advertisers.

Twitter is also in the midst of rebuilding its ad server. The hope is that the ad server, combined with Twitters MAP and other DR-focused efforts will buoy MoPubs growth.

Together, well be working to expand Twitters reach into all areas of app install and performance advertising while increasing the value that MoPub offers to mobile app developers, CrossInstall wrote in a blog post about the acquisition.

For now, CrossInstall will operate as a stand-alone business owned and operated by Twitter, which will continue to service CrossInstalls current clients and partners.

CrossInstall has partnerships with Facebook, Snap, Google App Campaigns and other large ad networks to offer playable ad units. Twitter will evaluate how to handle those relationships as the integration process progresses.

Twitter did not say whether it would roll out interactive ad units using CrossInstalls technology.

Follow this link:

Twitter Acquires Mobile DSP CrossInstall On The Hunt For Mobile Performance Dollars - AdExchanger

Angela Lang/CNET

The best part about seeing a tweet catch fire is reading snarky responses from people who retweet the tweet and add their own jabs, otherwise known as a quote reply or a quote retweet. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn't offer any single-click solution that will take you straight to a page to see all of the quoted replies.

You can tag a bot like Quoted Replies in a reply to the original tweet, which will then generate a link, but that means you have to let everyone know you're lurking around a particular tweet. Not ideal. While there are other ways to get the job done, here's one of the easiest ways to search and find all of the quoted replies and retweets for a particular tweet.

1. Go to the original tweet, and look at the URL in your browser's address bar.

2. Copy that 19-digit string of numbers at the end of the tweet's URL.

If you're using Twitter for iPhone or Android, you can also click the share icon (the icon to the immediate right of the heart icon). When a list of options appears, tap Copy link to tweet.

3. Back on your Twitter Home screen, click the magnifying glass Search icon.

4. In the search bar, type url: then paste the string of numbers you copied in step 1.

If you're on Android or iPhone and you copied the link to the tweet, paste that link and delete everything except the 19-digit string of numbers at the end. Then type url: at the front of those numbers.

Tip: Sometimes, at the end of that 19-digit string of numbers, you'll see a question mark followed by more letters, numbers and symbols. Delete those too, or your search won't work like you want it to.

5. Now hit enter and -- bada-bing! -- you can browse all the snarky replies and hot takes your heart desires.

For more, check out how coronavirus is sparking new problems for social networks, and why a judge ruled against a Twitter transparency effort.

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See quoted replies and retweets on Twitter with this simple trick - CNET

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Some Twitter employees will never return to their office.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey emailed employees on Tuesday telling them that theyd be allowed to work from home permanently, even after the coronavirus pandemic lockdown passes. Some jobs that require physical presence, such as maintaining servers, will still require employees to come in.

We've been very thoughtful in how we've approached this from the time we were one of the first companies to move to a work-from-home model, a Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. We'll continue to be, and we'll continue to put the safety of our people and communities first.

Twitter encouraged its employees to start working from home in early March as the coronavirus began to spread across the US. Several other tech companies did the same, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

That month, Twitter human resources head Jennifer Christie told BuzzFeed News the company would never probably be the same in the structure of its work. People who were reticent to work remotely will find that they really thrive that way, Christie said. Managers who didnt think they could manage teams that were remote will have a different perspective. I do think we wont go back.

Dorsey had announced the company's intent to work in a distributed way before the virus, but the pandemic forced the company to move the timeline up.

In his email, Dorsey said its unlikely Twitter would open its offices before September, and that business travel would be canceled until then as well, with very few exceptions. The company will also cancel all in-person events for the rest of the year, and reassess its plan for 2021 later this year. Finally, Twitter upped its allowance for work from home supplies to $1,000 for all employees.

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Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work At Home Forever - BuzzFeed News

(WBNG) -- By analyzing millions of tweets on the popular social media platform, Twitter, researchers have been able to see what Americans are talking about during quarantine.

"It gives us an idea of how America is feeling," said Binghamton University Computer Science Assistant Professor Anand Seetharam.

Seetharam and his colleague, Arti Ramesh, have spent the past few weeks analyzing millions of tweets. They both say America has had a lot to talk about.

"Looking out for workers, supporting them, and then showing frustration, hope, positivity, things like that. The emotion behind all these tweets is coming out, and that is something we saw up close," said Ramesh.

By looking at hashtags, researchers were able to pick out a few popular topics. From discussing lock downs, to unemployment, to even the nationwide toilet paper shortage, researchers saw a wide range of emotions through it all.

"This is representative of what people are going through," said Ramesh.

Using the hindsight of America's conversations, researchers hope social media can be a tool to prepare physically and mentally for future crisis situations.

"How people use words, how people convey emotions, why and when, and what leads people to say certain things, and what can be some solutions," said Ramesh.

Ramesh and Seetharam say they plan on using social media as a tool for learning about emotions and language in future studies.

Link:

Binghamton University professors use Twitter to study what America has to say during COVID-19 pandemic - WBNG-TV

While Chicago remains under stay-at-home orders, sports fans are left to sit and dream about the time when sports will return.

Weve seen video game simulations, mock drafts re-writing history, and weve been glued to the TV for two hours a week thanks to The Last Dance.

Now one Bears fan is taking things to the next level by designing some fantasy jerseys, even catching the eye of the teams social media account.

Going through them all, the amount of effort put into designing the kits is top notch, but some are a little more Bears than others.

Lets start with the Lake Effect jersey. At first glance, it looks a bit like a Titans jersey, but the Chicago stars going down the pants are a really nice detail. Plus, those cleats are the best of the bunch.

Moving to camo, this feels like an obligatory alternate design as we see it crop up time and time again. But who knows, if the NFL has to postpone due to COVID-19 concerns, maybe well actually see the Bears suit up in something similar over Memorial Day weekend?

The next jerseys, the color rush concepts, definitely look closest to a possible Bears alternate. Weve seen the team rock all-orange in the past, but never with those orange helmets that really make the whole thing pop. Sign me up for these.

Finally we come to the Retro melange. In a vacuum, these jerseys are sharp. But if I turned on the TV and saw these Id think I was watching the Panthers or Lions. Too confusing for the Bears to use.

Ultimately all that matters is what the team and the players think, and Cordarrelle Patterson seems to be all-in, no matter what.

Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of the Bears.

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These Bears jersey concepts have Twitter talking - NBCSports.com

Twitter seems to be rolling out one of the most useful features everyone would want to use scheduling. This feature would be quite handy for social media managers and news publications to handle their tweets.

The new feature lets users schedule a tweet on a specific date and time. You can even look at your all your scheduled tweets in the scheduling window. Scheduling seems to be currently available only to some folks on Twitter for desktop.

Its not clear if this is just a test, or if the feature is rolling out for Twitters users for desktop all over the world. We have asked Twitter for more details, and well update the story if we hear back.

Last year, Twitter started to experiment with the scheduler in the composer window. However, the new feature has a dedicated button for scheduling.

[Read: Amazon and Microsoft wont stop beefing over the Pentagons $10B war cloud]

The social network has been testing a bunch of features lately including threaded repliesand warnings for people who are posting potentially harmful replies.

While these features focus more on the health of the platform, schedule features can make the lives of a lot of people easier who depend heavily on Twitter for their work. It can also make announcements and news publishing a lot smoother.

Read next: The Tiger King's legal team politely asks Trump for a pardon with a ridiculous video

Read our daily coverage on how the tech industry is responding to the coronavirus and subscribe to our weekly newsletter Coronavirus in Context.

For tips and tricks on working remotely, check out our Growth Quarters articles here or follow us on Twitter.

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Twitter is rolling out tweet scheduling feature to some users - The Next Web

The search engine might be faster with larger memory storage than the human brain but not always be right, as is often the case with Google translate. Sparking a hilarious meme fest on Twitter, a dosa packet trended viral after the word batter was mistranslated and printed on it as ballebaaz. Also Read - So Thoughtful! Twitter Learns Empathy From Migrant Worker as Picture With Pets in Arms, on Her Walk Back Home, Goes Viral

Batter is a colloquial for batsman in a game of cricket hence the Hindi translation, perhaps by Google, showed it to be ballebaaz. The words Idli/Dosa Batter were printed on the packet in English, Tamil and Hindi languages and the literal translation left Twitterati in splits. Taking to his handle on the microblogging site, a user shared the picture of the packet and captioned it, Damn you Google Translate! #Indyeah! (sic). Also Read - Vijay Mallya Urges Govt To Take His Money & Close His Case, Twitter Says 'Pay Your Employees First'

What followed were hilarious reactions from other users who instantly cracked up the mood on social media amid the pandemic gloom. While one user wrote, If batter is ballebaaz then battery should be artillery barrage no? What would barrage be? Legal drinking age? (sic), another commented, what if I am a bowler? what do I eat then? (sic) and yet another tweeted, Banda ab bats khayega (A guy will now eat bats?) sic.

Check out Twitters hilarious reaction here:

Not a cricket fan but this meme fest really got us digging in the mood!

Read more here:

Dosa 'Ballebaaz'? Google's Literal Translation of The Word 'Batter' Leaves Twitter in Splits - India.com

Do you like highlighter yellow with a weird patch stuck on to the shoulder and ombr letters? Then I have just the uniform for you. The Los Angeles Rams revealed new uniforms, and not everyone is loving them. It was only two months ago that the Rams unveiled their new logo and people roasted them for it, and now they have given us something new to dissect and judge.

The new look is meant to be modern while paying homage to the past, but in my very humble opinion, the jerseys seem to be trying a little too hard.

Three uniforms were revealed and are described as, "Royal x Royal", "Royal x Yellow" and "Bone x Bone."

They also tweeted out the new uniforms, which feature the horns.

People seem to be liking the helmet more than they are liking the uniforms.

Here are some Twitter reaction to the reveal:

Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp tweeted his approval of the uniforms, saying he can't wait to wear his No. 10 on game days.

Kicker Johnny Hekkersaid, "Full send on the new kit."

Robert Woods and Jalen Ramsey also like the new look.

The Rams tweeted out a video showing player reactions to the jerseys. But really, what are they going to say? They aren't going to roast the jerseys.

Ice cream cake is a new one.

There are really some mixed reviews for the jersey.

Like I said, very mixed.

People were expecting something a little different.

What's wrong with Ikea?

Justice for Donald. Please don't make him wear these goofy numbers.

The name tags should say, "Hi my name is ____."

Who do we need to contact?

Rams fans have already been through it.

No need to remind them of Super Bowl LIII.

One thing's for sure: they are no Chargers uniforms.

More here:

Twitter reacts to Los Angeles Rams' new uniforms and helmet - CBS Sports