AI tools used by employers to hire and monitor workers have the potential to discriminate against people with disabilities, potentially violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). On Thursday, the EEOC and Justice Department issued guidance that employers launching the computer-based tools could follow to comply with federal law. More: - AI software can be used to screen resumes and applicants in video interviews, monitor workers' performance, and determine pay and promotions, among other things.
- But such algorithmic decision-making has the potential to violate EEOC laws that protect people with disabilities, according to the agencies.
- "We are sounding an alarm regarding the dangers tied to blind reliance on AI and other technologies that we are seeing increasingly used by employers," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division said.
- The EEOC has issued a "technical assistance document" that delves into how ADA requirements could apply to AI in employment decision-making. It offers best practices for employers using the tech so they can comply with the ADA.
Zoom-out: - Last year, the EEOC launched an initiative to make sure AI-based hiring tools comply with civil rights laws.
- On a state level, California lawmakers recently proposed a change to employment discrimination laws that would prohibit AI automated-decision systems that screen out applicants based on "protected characteristics," such as race, disability, and gender.
- Meanwhile, the New York City Council approved a bill that requires companies developing AI hiring software to do annual audits to make sure their tech doesn't discriminate. The law takes effect in Jan. 2023.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 
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During an episode of "The Colin Cowherd Podcast," Mark Cuban said entrepreneurs will need to understand AI at some point as the technology becomes common. The billionaire and AI investor said there are "two types of companies: those who are great at AI and everybody else." More: - While a person doesn't need to be "great" at AI to launch a company, at some point, they are "going to have to understand it," Cuban said.
- He compared today's AI to PCs in the early days. "You didn’t have to be good at PCs, but it helped," he remarked. "Then networks, then the internet, then mobile.”
- Cuban has made similar comments in the past.
- In August, he tweeted that there are two kinds of companies: Those that "originate their own AI successfully" and "everyone else."
- Today's top companies are AI dominant and "running away from their Non-AI competitors," he said, adding that "AI's competitive advantage is exponential, but nowhere to be seen on a balance sheet."
- In 2017, Cuban predicted that the world's first trillionaires will derive from someone "who masters AI" and related tech.
Zoom-out: - Among his other AI initiatives, Cuban founded his AI Bootcamp initiative in 2019. The program teaches AI literacy to underserved high school students through free camps held in multiple cities. It aims to graduate 1,000 students a year by 2023.
- He is an investor in Alethea AI, a creator of “intelligent NFTs" that are animated and interactive using the language model GPT-3.
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Google announced a new skin tone scale that could address issues of racial bias in AI and other technology. The new scale, which has a wider range of human skin tones, could lead to apps and other products that better reflect people of color. More: - The 10-tone Monk Skin Tone Scale replaces the six-tone Fitzpatrick Skin Type scale, which companies have used to categorize skin color, collect data, train machine vision software, and assess tech such as facial recognition.
- But when the AI is trained using the Fitzpatrick scale, it may reflect biases toward lighter skin tones due to its limited palette.
- To address this and other issues, Google developed the Monk Skin Tone Scale with Harvard professor and sociologist Ellis Monk.
- Google is already filtering Image search results based on Monk's scale. The company says it will incorporate the new scale into other products in the coming months.
- Google has also shared the Monk Skin Tone Scale data under a Creative Commons license for others to use.
FAST COMPANY
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Zoom signed a deal to acquire Solvvy, a chatbot and conversational AI platform for customer support, for an undisclosed sum. Zoom said Solvvy's technology will broaden its Zoom Contact Center with "scalable self-service and conversational AI." More: - Zoom said Solvvy's tech will help answer customer questions and solve issues to improve the customer experience and drive operational savings.
- The transaction will help Solvvy scale its conversational AI offering, said CEO Mahesh Ram.
- The company said its chatbot and automation have powered more than 1 billion conversations for HelloFresh, Vimeo, Under Armour, Stash, and other brands.
ZOOM
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Dusty Robotics, a developer of robot-powered tools for construction, announced $45M in Series B funding to expand. The female-led startup is focused on automating construction manual workflows through its FieldPrinter product. More: - FieldPrinter is described as "an autonomous printer on wheels."
- It can drive itself around construction sites and print out construction documents without needing to map them out by hand.
- It also uses automatic obstacle detection and avoidance, presumably through AI such as computer vision.
- The Mountain View-based company's customers include DPR, Swinerton, PARIC, and Performance Contracting.
- CEO Tessa Lau, formerly of IBM Research and robotics lab Willow Garage, also co-founded Savioke, a developer of autonomous delivery robots for hotels and apartments.
- Dusty is now valued at $250M and has raised $69M to date.
FORBES
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🍋 FRESH FUNDING 🍋 - Dusty Robotics (Mountain View, Calif.), robot-powered tools for the workforce: $45M B led by Scale Venture Partners, participation from Baseline Ventures, Canaan Partners, Root Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, Cantos.
- RGo Robotics (Israel), AI perception for autonomous robots: $20M led by MoreTech Ventures, participation from Converge, StageOne.
- Predibase (U.S.), AI development platform: $16.5M A led by Greylock, participation from the Factory, et al.
- Concentric AI (San Jose, Calif.), AI-based solutions for protecting business-critical data: $14.5M A led by Ballistic Ventures, participation from Citi Ventures, Core Ventures Group, et al.
- Kinetix (Paris, France), AI-assisted 3D animation: $11M Seed led by Adam Ghobarah.
- Amperon (Houston, Texas), AI-powered grid forecasts: $7M A led by HSBC Asset Management, participation from Riverstone Holdings, Muus Asset Management, et al.
- Cogniteam (Tel Aviv, Israel), collaborative robotic development capability platform: $5.6M A led by Seabarn Management.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, subscribe to our newsletter, Inside Venture Capital.
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- California utilities say they lack enough data to widely roll out AI algorithms trained to detect infrastructure problems that can spark wildfires.
- Actor Giancarlo Esposito is the voice of Sonos's AI-enabled assistant for its smart speakers, which is rolling out to U.S. users via an update next month.
- Israeli AI company AI21 Labs announced its MRKL system to enhance large language models using outside knowledge sources such as weather apps.
- Google is launching an AI feature for Nest Hub Max users to talk to Google Assistant without a wake word. The opt-in tool, "Look and Talk," will require Google Voice and Face match to be enabled.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and analyst at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily tech news. Since starting work at Inside, she has covered various topics including virtual reality, drones, and e-commerce. Prior to that she was a public policy and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, where she won a Pulitzer Prize nomination and First Amendment Award for reporting on the rising costs of pensions. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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