Google’s CEO has admitted it had a sexual harassment problem, the U.K. has fined Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the painting creating by artificial intelligence sold way above predictions.
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First from LinkedIn: Last Thursday, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to all Google employees admitting that the company has had a problem with sexual harassment. Over the past two years the tech giant has fired 48 people, including 13 in senior management positions over issues with sexual misconduct. Apparently none of whom received any exit package. This email was sent out after a New York Times report alleging that Google has protected at least three executives over the past decade who were accused of sexual misconduct. Most notably Andy Rubin the creator of Android who Google paid a $90 million exit package after confirming that he had forced a female employee to perform oral sex on him. The New York Times report claims both other executives received millions in payouts even when the company had no legal obligation to do so.
Next from Reddit: Facebook has been fined by the United Kingdom over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But before you start thinking maybe this will teach Facebook its lesson…think again. The U.K. fined the social media company only $645,000 U.S., which according to reports was the most that was allowed under the law. To put this in perspective Facebook makes $645,000 in less than 9 minutes. So it shouldn’t have any problem paying the fine. But in the future companies will need to be more careful with data, as under the new GDPR harsher fines are possible within millions of dollars and companies could even be charged up to 4 per cent of their revenue for the most serious offences.
Finally from LinkedIn: Remember that portrait we told you able last week, the one created by an algorithm, well it’s been auctioned off for much higher than previously predicted. It was thought that the painting would sell for somewhere between $7,000 to 10,000 however…the artificial intelligence created portrait sold for $432,500 U.S., at Christie’s auction house in New York.. Now, this was the first time a piece of art created by artificial intelligence was ever auctioned off at Christies and it took just seven minutes of bidding. Now that’s a lot of money for an AI portrait.
The ‘Portrait of Belamy’ created by Paris-based collective Obvious through algorithms and 15,000 painting data sets. Source: Christie’s