Financial Abuse in the Age of Smartphones

Keystroke-monitoring software, hidden cameras, GPS tracking devices: Survivors chronicle their abuse—and escape

Technology is making spousal financial abuse easier, particularly among affluent Americans.

Smartphones and tracking devices have given abusive partners more tools to surveil and control their spouses, according to advocates for victims. At the same time, though, technology is also helping victims discover hidden assets.  Read More

Help Me Understand The Uber Cancelation Scam?

Ridesharing apps have radically changed the way we get around on the ground. It’s not just that being able to order a car through an app at any time is useful, but historically I enjoyed Uber because I felt like they offered great customer service.

Over the years, as the platform has gotten bigger, I feel like that has changed.

While a vast majority of Uber drivers are professional, given how big the network is you also have some people trying to pull off scams. There are all kinds of them. But there’s one kind I can’t make sense of. I’m curious if you guys can help me understand it.

Accepting A Ride And Then Ignoring

There seems to be a fairly common scam where Uber drivers are essentially more focused on collecting cancelation fees than driving. This can come in one of two forms:

• The driver accepting your ride and then just ignoring you, hoping that you’ll eventually cancel the ride
• The driver accepting the ride, and then texting with you and asking you to cancel the ride (they could give a variety of reasons for encouraging this)  Read More

Facebook taught an AI the ‘theory of mind’

When it comes to competitive games, AI systems have already shown they can easily mop the floor with the best humanity has to offer. But life in the real world isn’t a zero sum game like poker or Starcraft and we need AI to work with us, not against us. That’s why a research team from Facebook taught an AI how to play the cooperative card game Hanabi (the Japanese word for fireworks), to gain a better understanding of how humans think.

 

Specifically, the Facebook team set out to instill upon its AI system the theory of mind. “Theory of mind is this idea of understanding the beliefs and intentions of other agents or other players or humans,” Noam Brown, a researcher at Facebook AI, told Engadget. “It’s something that humans developed from a very early age. But one AIs have struggled with for a very long time.” Read More