Cultural anthropology seems to have failed spectacularly at combating racism. While those in the field wanted to prove that xenophobia and racism were “morally bankrupt”, and that humans were only different culturally, their prejudices betrayed them. For example, Franz Boas, a prominent figure in the field, attempted to defend the Inuits but ended up patronising them; he was delighted to report that they were not as dirty as he expected them to be. 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
Merv
August 15, 2022
