sonia | Story! When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis

When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis by Annalee Newitz. An intentionally adorable robot with sophisticated programming, a curmudgeonly crow, and a marginalized human child track a flu outbreak. This is a story about good intentions, with skill and care, being understood across cultural divides. Delightful!

ETA: The helpfulness of the robot in this story reminds me of another helpful AI in "it me, ur smol" by A. Merc Rustad. /ETA

Commentary on the story: No Robot like Robot by Janelle Shane.

Having a well-meaning mind behind our algorithms would save us from a lot of the harm that we’re unwittingly inflicting—algorithms that copy our biases, that recommend extreme videos and articles, or that censor non-white, non-binary, non-heterosexual, and/or disabled voices. [...] Instead, we’ve got to be careful not to expect our algorithms to behave like fun fairy-tale Robots.

via file770.com.