Can you launch a product without the features figured out? Google just did.

Apple Card might use sexist AI to determine spending limits

The Apple Card, a partnership between Apple, Goldman Sachs and Mastercard, launched in the United States in August. Now, several people are reporting that women are receiving less credit than their spouses who share their income and have the same – or worse – credit score.

Goldman Sachs developed the algorithm used, and their credit review process is now being labelled sexist by Elizabeth Warren and several high-power tech executives. When getting questions from the media, Apple blamed Goldman Sachs, and Goldman Sachs blamed an algorithm.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak added some spice to the discussion when he declared that he could borrow ten times as much as his wife on their Apple Cards even though they file taxes jointly and have the same credit score. 

So far, there is no evidence that the algorithm is sexist beyond anecdotes. It could only be that the consumption patterns differ between women and men. For instance, women tend to have more credit cards open. But the reported findings have gotten New York State regulators to open an investigation, so soon we will know.

Facebook and Google both reach for a piece of the banking pie

Google will begin to offer a "smart checking" account next year, teaming up with two banks, Citigroup and the Stanford Federal Credit Union. However, none of the involved partners seems to know what features the "smart checking" account will consist of.

Also, Facebook just launched its new feature, Pay, that will let you send money to friends, shop for goods, or even donate to fundraisers across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Previously, Facebook had a service called Payments that worked only with Messenger. The new solution still must be set up for each app individually, so signing up for Facebook Pay on Instagram won't automatically set up Facebook Pay for WhatsApp either.

Although Facebook Pay arrives as Facebook works to approve its new digital cryptocurrency called Libra, the company says Facebook Pay is a separate project. However, Facebook will certainly want people to use Libra for payments in the future.

Twitter is still not sure how to define "political ads"

Twitter's new political ad ban, announced by CEO Jack Dorsey in October, is taking effect on November 22nd. But the company is still struggling to decide what constitutes a political ad. Twitter executives have met with public relations and free speech groups in Washington to discuss the topic.

From next week, you won't be able to advertise content related to political parties, candidates, government officials, legislation, and more. The policy effectively bans campaigns and candidates from advertising on Twitter.

But the new regulation also covers "cause-based advertising", which is more of a grey zone. Topics like climate change or abortion will be restricted rather than banned completely, and a list of banned words is supposed to be published next week and kept up to date continuously. However many organisations are worried, and Twitter has still not been able to give any definite answers about what impact the new policy will have.

Tool of the week: Glyphy

Are you constantly struggling to find the correct characters and symbols when needed? Glyphy is a nifty little online tool that allows you to easily copy special characters and symbols (also known as glyphs) to your clipboard. From there, you can paste them into any document or app you want.

Even though I know of the control + command + shift shortcode, I sometimes find it hard to find the correct symbol. So, since it is much better structured, Glyph often comes in handy.

Photo by Izabella Englund.

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