Ronald Lacy was forced into a corner when he was presented with a leasing contract for a long-haul truck; he could lease a truck he couldn’t inspect beforehand, or he could refuse and be unemployed. Companies like CFI and Pathway prey on desperate truck drivers who wanted to be their own bosses, convincing them to lease instead of buy — a road that led to financial ruin for many of their victims. Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here