NEWS YOU CAN’T MISS

Japan Goes Super Saiyan Against Manga Piracy

Japan is taking its fight against online piracy to the next level, enlisting AI to protect its beloved manga and anime. Here's the scoop:

• The government estimates that the illegal reproduction of manga and anime costs producers $13 billion every year.

• The Cultural Affairs Agency is launching a $1.9 million pilot scheme to combat piracy.

• Its AI model will be trained on publisher content and pirate site layouts, and will scour the internet to flag unlicensed content for copyright infringement.

Why does this matter?

• Japan's creative industries are a major economic force, with exports of games, animated films, and comics reaching $30 billion in 2022.

• The anime sector alone accounted for nearly 67% of this total.

• Anime is growing globally, with 42% of Gen Z watching it weekly. Case in point: The Boy and the Heron recently topped the US box office.

Protecting these cultural exports is vital for Japan's economic growth and cultural influence worldwide.

And so begins the epic saga of AI-chan: Defender of Anime, armed with neural networks and a burning passion for copyright law. 😎

When AI Unjustly Denies You An Apartment

Mary Louis, a security guard with 17 years of on-time rent payments, was denied an apartment after an AI tool unfairly gave her a low score.

Here’s what happened:

• The AI tool assigned her a score of 324 (below the required 443) with no explanation or opportunity to appeal.

• As a result, she joined a class-action lawsuit with over 400 Black and Hispanic tenants, claiming the AI unfairly penalized housing voucher users by assigning them lower scores.

• A housing voucher is a government-funded program that helps low-income families, seniors, and individuals with disabilities to afford safe housing.

• However, the AI software did not factor in that applicants could be using a housing voucher, and instead relied on factors like credit scores and debt.

The outcome was significant: SafeRent settled the case for $2.3 million and is prohibited from using scoring for housing voucher applicants. If the company develops a new scoring system, it must be validated by a third-party fair housing organization.

This case underscores a growing issue: AI is increasingly being used for critical decisions, from housing applications to filtering resumes in HR. With minimal regulation in place, lawsuits like this may become a vital tool for holding companies accountable.

For me, AI should remain a helping tool, not the sole decision-maker—humans need to stay involved to ensure fairness and accountability.

WOMAN IN TECH

Meet Shivani Siroya, founder & CEO of Tala

Celebrating this week's Woman in Tech 🥳: Meet Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO of Tala, a $800M fintech company that provides microloans to people without credit histories.

Born in India, Siroya earned her BA in International Relations from Wesleyan University and a Master’s in Health Economics & Policy from Columbia University. She began her career as an analyst at PwC and Citigroup.

Her work interviewing 3,500+ people across South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa for the UN Population Fund highlighted a key issue: millions of eligible borrowers lacked credit access due to limited data.

In 2011, she founded Tala to address this gap by using AI to offer instant microloans in underserved markets. Here’s how it works:

• Instead of traditional credit scores, Tala’s AI analyzes 250+ data points, such as phone usage.

• A mobile app lets users apply for loans directly from their smartphones, giving results within seconds.

• Tala reports repayment behaviors to local credit bureaus, helping users create a formal credit history.

Today, Tala processes nearly $200M in transactions every month. The startup has been featured on Fortune’s Impact 20, CNBC Disruptor (5 times), and Forbes Fintech 50 (8 times).

Siroya's contributions to financial inclusion have earned her recognition in Fortune's 40 Under 40 list (2018). She was also nominated as a Wired Icon by Melinda Gates (2018).

My fave quote: “Be willing to take the risk, because otherwise, why are any of us doing this? Let’s not play safe.”

Are AI Cameras the Answer to Drunk Driving Crashes?

With drunk drivers 6 times more likely to cause fatal crashes, UK police are testing an AI camera system called Heads-Up to detect drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It analyzes road behavior and alerts police to intercept suspicious vehicles for roadside testing.

"Our officers cannot be everywhere," said Supt Simon Jenkinson, whose team polices the 14,000 miles of roads in the two counties.

While many claim it could save lives by catching drunk drivers before accidents occur, some argue that this is a case of managing symptoms rather than solving the underlying issues.

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