Latest news with #Sapien
Business Insider
6 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Trump wants to ban 'woke AI.' Here's why it's hard to make a truly neutral chatbot.
President Donald Trump's war on woke has entered the AI chat. The White House on Wednesday issued an executive order requiring any AI model used by the federal government to be ideologically neutral, nonpartisan, and "truth-seeking." The order, part of the White House's new AI Action Plan, said AI should not be "woke" or "manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas" like diversity, equity, and inclusion. The White House said it would issue guidance within 120 days that will outline exactly how AI makers can show they are unbiased. As Business Insider's past reporting shows, making AI completely free from bias is easier said than done. Why it's so hard to create a truly 'neutral' AI Removing bias from AI models is not a simple technical adjustment — or an exact science. The later stages of AI training rely on the subjective calls of contractors. This process, known as reinforcement learning from human feedback, is crucial because topics can be ambiguous, disputed, or hard to define cleanly in code. The directives for what counts as sensitive or neutral are decided by the tech companies making the chatbots. "We don't define what neutral looks like. That's up to the customer," Rowan Stone, the CEO of data labeling firm Sapien, which works with customers like Amazon and MidJourney, told BI. "Our job is to make sure they know exactly where the data came from and why it looks the way it does." In some cases, tech companies have recalibrated their chatbots to make their models less woke, more flirty, or more engaging. Please help BI improve our Business, Tech, and Innovation coverage by sharing a bit about your role — it will help us tailor content that matters most to people like you. What is your job title? (1 of 2) Entry level position Project manager Management Senior management Executive management Student Self-employed Retired Other Continue By providing this information, you agree that Business Insider may use this data to improve your site experience and for targeted advertising. By continuing you agree that you accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . They are also already trying to make them more neutral. BI previously reported that contractors for Meta and Google projects were often told to flag and penalize"preachy" chatbot responses that sounded moralizing or judgmental. Is 'neutral' the right approach? Sara Saab, the VP of product at Prolific, an AI and datatraining company, told BI that thinking about AI systems that are perfectly neutral "may be the wrong approach" because "human populations are not perfectly neutral." Saab added, "We need to start thinking about AI systems as representing us and therefore give them the training and fine-tuning they need to know contextually what the culturally sensitive, appropriate tone and pitch is for any interaction with a human being." Tech companies must also consider the risk of bias creeping into AI models from the datasets they are trained on. "Bias will always exist, but the key is whether it's there by accident or by design," said Sapien's Stone. "Most models are trained on data where you don't know who created it or what perspective it came from. That makes it hard to manage, never mind fix." Big Tech's tinkering with AI models has sometimes led to unpredictable and harmful outcomes Earlier this month, for example, Elon Musk's xAI rolled back a code update to Grok after the chatbot went on a 16-hour antisemitic rant on the social media platform X. The bot's new instructions included a directive to "tell it like it is."
Mint
18-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Fintech Shareholders Want Delaware, Not Texas for Bankruptcy
(Bloomberg) -- Shareholders of collapsed fintech startup Linqto Inc. asked a federal judge in Texas to send the company's bankruptcy case to Delaware, contending there they will be better protected from the whims of new managers. Investment firm Sapien Group said in a court filing Wednesday that shareholders want to challenge actions taken by Linqto's board after a new chief executive was hired to replace founder Bill Sarris. The filing alleges that Linqto's new management team under CEO Dan Siciliano created a corporate shell named Linqto Texas that was used to justify filing for bankruptcy there instead of Delaware, where the parent in incorporated. Delaware's reputation as the default location for companies to house their corporate paperwork has been under attack in recent months by a small number of tech heavyweights, who claim the state's business courts are biased against founders like Elon Musk. Texas lawmakers have taken advantage of the controversy by trying to persuade companies to reincorporate in their state. Texas Sweetens Pitch to CEOs, Boards With New State Protections Linqto shareholders should be allowed to fight current management in Delaware's federal bankruptcy court because the 'current board has taken actions in blatant derogation of the rights' shareholders have under Delaware law, Sapien said in its filing. 'The filing of the cases before this court in this district appears to be the quintessential example of improper forum shopping,' Sapien said in the filing. In an emailed statement, Linqto defended the Texas filing, arguing the court there has the experience necessary to handle the case. 'The decision to file for Chapter 11 restructuring in the Southern District of Texas was made with a single priority focus: to provide our customers with the best chance of maximizing the value of their claims,' the company said. Companies can file for bankruptcy in any US federal court so long as there is some kind of economic connection to the jurisdiction. Critics say the rule lets managers shop for friendly judges, since the link can be as simple as having one unit in a big corporate family set up a bank account in the state. Houston-based federal judge Alfredo R. Perez would need to approve Sapien's motion for a move to happen. Delaware's business courts routinely handle shareholder lawsuits aimed at company managers like Musk. He lost a case over his record-setting pay package last year and decided to reincorporate Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. in Texas. Linqto's new managers claim that former executives mismanaged the firm's business for years by misleading customers into believing they owned shares in 111 privately-held companies worth more than $500 million. The firm told its 13,600 customers that they could buy stakes in private companies before the firms went public, something that's typically available only to big institutions, Linqto bankruptcy attorney Samuel A. Schwartz told a judge in Texas overseeing the insolvency case last week. That turned out to be wrong, Schwartz said, with a Linqto affiliate the actual owner. The company's customers are unsecured creditors, he said. After Siciliano took over early this year, he began an internal investigation that eventually forced out many original executives, according to court records. Shareholders are concerned about the allegations against former managers as well as alleged violations of shareholder rights by new managers, Sapien said in the filing. The company has not held an annual meeting of shareholders as required under Delaware law, according to the filing. A new board of directors also wrongly changed the company's bylaws and prepared for the bankruptcy filing 'in a stealthy and secretive manner,' Sapien said. Private Market Startup Collapses Amid SEC Probe: The Brink The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Linqto and whether former managers failed to verify if some of its customers were accredited investors with sufficient financial backing to invest through the company, according to court documents. Linqto's advisers plan to use the bankruptcy process to raise money to repay customers and other creditors, Schwartz said. He added the company will try to negotiate a bankruptcy payout plan with regulators before presenting a detailed proposal to creditors for a vote. The case is Linqto Texas, LLC, 25-90186, US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston. (Updates with comment from company in the seventh graph.) More stories like this are available on
Mint
09-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Shareholders of Private Market Startup Vow to Fight Bankruptcy
Shareholders of collapsed fintech startup Linqto vowed to fight an effort by its new management to reorganize the troubled company in bankruptcy. Managers who took over in recent months put Linqto under court protection in Houston this week, claiming former executives mismanaged the firm's business for years by misleading customers into believing they owned shares in 111, privately-held companies worth more than $500 million. Shareholder Sapien Group, an Australia-based investment firm, said it has the backing of 52% of shareholders for its campaign to challenge current managers in bankruptcy. Sapien has hired bankruptcy lawyers for advice on whether to try to dismiss the Chapter 11 petition, or take other action, according to the letter. 'Our objectives remain the same: preserving the value of Linqto as a going concern and operating business; and protecting the value of the shareholders' investments,' Sapien said in the letter. It was unclear which shareholders are part of the Sapien-led effort. A representative of Linqto declined to comment on the letter. Linqto told its 13,600 customers that they could buy stakes in private companies before the firms went public, something that's typically available only to big institutions, company bankruptcy attorney Samuel A. Schwartz told the judge overseeing the insolvency case on Tuesday. That turned out to be wrong, Schwartz said. The 'securities couldn't be transferred just directly to customers, that would be a violation of securities law,' he said, referring to the shares customers thought they were acquiring. 'Also, the securities themselves have contractual transfer limitations.' The startup, which started offering private investments in 2020, was part of a wave of financial firms that claimed to make private markets more accessible. Its offerings — which included crypto startup Ripple and AI company CoreWeave — drew in individuals attracted to the allure of private markets. The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Linqto and whether its former managers failed to verify if some of its customers were accredited investors with sufficient financial backing to invest through the company, according to court documents. A Linqto affiliate is the actual owner of the 111 securities, Schwartz said. The company's customers are unsecured creditors, he said. Linqto's advisers plan to use the bankruptcy process to raise money to repay customers and other creditors, he said. The company will try to negotiate a bankruptcy payout plan with regulators before presenting a detailed proposal to creditors for a vote, Schwartz said. 'We think we have significant resources to make distributions to customers,' he told US Bankruptcy Judge Alfredo R. Perez. The company in early 2024 began searching for a new CEO to replace company founder Bill Sarris. After a months-long search, it hired Francis Daniel Siciliano as its new CEO, who learned just before he started the new job that Linqto faced probes by the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Siciliano began an internal investigation that eventually forced out many original executives, according to court records. Linqto has lined up a $60 million loan from Sandton Capital Partners to fund its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company said it needs the loan because it's been generating relatively little cash since it suspended its operations in March. To stay afloat, the company is selling securities 'to sophisticated purchasers' that are in compliance with applicable state and federal laws, Stein said. The case is Linqto Texas, LLC, 25-90186, US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Business Wire
04-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Elucidata and Sapien Biosciences Announce Strategic Partnership to Transform Biobank Assets into high quality AI Products
SAN FRANCISCO & HYDERABAD, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Elucidata, a leader in data-centric AI for drug discovery and translational research, and Sapien Biosciences, India's first and largest commercial biobank with 300,000+ patient samples founded in partnership with Apollo Hospitals, today announced a strategic partnership to convert Sapien's extensive biobank assets into AI-ready, multimodal data products for use in drug and diagnostic development. Through this collaboration, Sapien will harness Elucidata's platform to integrate, standardize, and enrich its vast repository of biospecimens and curated clinical data, making them accessible for predictive modeling, synthetic data generation, and advanced genomics research. The partnership reflects a shared focus on turning real-world patient data into high-value actionable insights that drive precision medicine and improve outcomes worldwide. With access to over 300,000 patient samples across oncology, cardiology, autoimmune, inflammation, neurology, and other diseases, Sapien operates at a scale matched by few biobanks worldwide. This includes more than 85,000 cancer patients, increasingly paired with digitized histopathology images, genomic profiles, and structured longitudinal clinical data, making it one of the top 10 biobanks globally and the largest integrated resource for Asian patient data. 'At Sapien, we believe that deeply characterized patient data especially from underrepresented populations like those in India can catalyze more inclusive and effective diagnostics and therapies worldwide,' said Dr. Jugnu Jain, CEO and Co-founder of Sapien Biosciences. 'This partnership with Elucidata enables us to convert our rich biological and clinical datasets into interoperable, AI-ready formats, unlocking their potential for translational research, patient stratification, and precision drug development.' The first phase of the collaboration will focus on building AI models that infer genomic and transcriptomic insights from digital pathology images. By using NGS-annotated slides from Sapien's cancer biobank, the project will enable the generation of synthetic multi-modal datasets essential for next-generation diagnostic tools and tissue-sparing research strategies. This is particularly valuable for rare cancers and limited biopsy specimens. 'Sapien's scale, sample quality, and data depth make it a critical partner in our mission to democratize access to high quality, AI-ready biomedical data,' said Dr. Abhishek Jha, CEO and Co-founder of Elucidata. 'By applying our Polly platform to Sapien's datasets, we can bridge the gap between fragmented sample collections and next-gen AI models that accelerate target discovery and biomarker validation.' In addition to oncology, the partnership will explore multi-disease use cases across Sapien's biobank, including cardiovascular, autoimmune, and neurological disorders, building synthetic clinicogenomic datasets that support pharma R&D and companion diagnostic development. 'This partnership between Elucidata and Sapien Biosciences brings together Sapien's extensive, high-quality biobank resources and Elucidata's expertise in AI-powered data integration. By making rich biospecimens and clinical datasets AI-ready, this collaboration has the potential to accelerate global innovation and help reduce the complexity of human biology for research and patient care,' said Dr. Navjot Singh, advisor of and healthcare leader with 22 years of expertise in strategy, technology, and innovation, most recently as a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company. Elucidata recently ranked 7th in the Broad Institute's Autoimmune Disease Machine Learning Challenge and recently won the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Research Data Commons AI Data Readiness Challenge, highlighting its leadership in data-centric AI for life sciences. About Elucidata Elucidata is a data-first AI company that accelerates life sciences R&D by converting fragmented biomedical datasets into harmonized, AI-ready assets. Its proprietary Polly platform integrates EHRs, genomics, imaging, and clinical trial data for seamless downstream analysis and model development. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices across the U.S. and India, Elucidata supports over 70 pharma and diagnostics clients, and has contributed to 16 drug programs progressing toward FDA approvals. Recognized by the National Cancer Institute and Fast Company for its innovation in biotech, Elucidata is enabling a new era of data-driven discovery. Visit for more information. About Sapien Biosciences Founded in partnership with Apollo Hospitals, Sapien Biosciences is India's premier multi-disease biobank and a leader in Indian real-world evidence (RWE) for personalized medicine. With access to more than 300,000 patients' samples including 2 million pathology samples, Sapien offers FFPE tissues, blood, and liquid biopsy samples along with annotated histopathology slides and longitudinal clinical data. Its resources support a broad range of applications from AI/ML modeling and multi-omics research to drug screening in patient tumor-derived cells and biomarker discovery. Sapien has published over 10 peer-reviewed studies using Indian patient data and collaborates with leading diagnostic and pharma companies to reduce the representation gap in global omics datasets. Learn more at
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
20 Side Gigs That Rival Full-Time Wages, Earning Up To $4K Monthly
Experts are advising that side gigs are not a luxury anymore. American workers worry daily about losing their jobs as the economy tightens and technological advances cause massive layoffs. If you're a full-time employee, side gigs are becoming a necessity for extra income to make ends meet and as an insurance policy in case your job ends unexpectedly. The American workforce has learned they can call their own shots, have more flexibility and make more money working online with quick cash side gigs. Side gigs are becoming the new normal because workers are tired of the stress and uncertainty of their jobs. They're seeking the autonomy of being in charge of their own fate, instead of leaving that to corporate America that they can no longer trust to have their interests at heart. There are all types of side gigs that you can choose from. You can work from home online for some that do not require experience. Others take you into the community. Some are supplements for full-time workers, while other side gigs can be full-time pursuits that rival full-time wages like some of the ones listed below. Many gig jobs are those that AI can't handle like spotting bias, checking content or giving feedback. One platform behind this trend, Sapien, has 800,000 users across 100+ countries. They've completed over 75 million tasks for clients like Lenovo, Alibaba, MidJourney, and the UN. According to Rowan Stone, Sapien's CEO, 'If we can find a way to tap into that knowledge and reward people fairly for it, gig work won't just improve; it'll fundamentally change how we think about work, technology and value creation.' Stone explains that Sapiens is not your typical gig working platform. They do things differently; we use token-ized incentives and an on-chain reputation system to enure the highest possible data quality,' Stone explains. 'Contributors stake both tokens and reputation as collateral against the quality of their work, which means everyone is incentive aligned to deliver great data. More rep = more responsibility, and importantly, higher income potential via both advanced tasks and peer-QC (users validating the work of other users). Ensuring everyone has real skin in the game has been the single biggest unlock for Sapien since we launched 1.5 years ago.' The researchers at Topture calculated the hourly rate and estimated monthly income of 22 of the most popular side gigs. They researched the typical lowest and highest hourly rates using publicly available sources such as job boards, freelancer platforms and market rate reports. These values were used to establish a realistic earning range for each job. They assumed a consistent workload of 20 hours per week to reflect part-time engagement alongside full-time employment. Using this rate and workload, they projected monthly income estimates by multiplying the average hourly rate by 20 hours per week and then by 4.33 (average weeks per month). Average hourly rate was calculated as the midpoint between the high and low estimates. They used Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner to analyze public interest in each side hustle. Each data point is divided by the total number of searches within the US to measure relative popularity. This ensures that more populous states don't automatically rank higher due to higher total search volume. The resulting values are then scaled from 0 to 100, based on the keyword's proportion to all searches in the US. Note: identical interest scores across states do not indicate equal search volume, but rather similar relative interest. They used this normalized state-level data to identify the top three states with the highest interest in each side hustle. The same approach was used to calculate the overall Side Hustle Popularity Ranking. Most of these gig jobs rival full-time incomes, bring in thousands of dollars monthly, require little to no formal education--just a practical skill and a few focused hours each week--and have the flexibility to be done remotely at home. Here are 20 of the most popular side hustles with average monthly/yearly salaries and brief job descriptions. 1. Voiceover work ($4,500/$54,000). A voiceover side hustler provides voice recordings for a variety of media. 2. Selling Digital Products ($3,100/$37,200). This side gig involves creating and selling items like templates or e-books online. 3. E-Commerce Seller ($2,050/$24,600). E-commerce side jobs include selling handmade or vintage items online through platforms like Etsy. 4. Handyman Services ($1,750/$21,000). This side gig allows you to perform minor repairs and maintenance tasks. 5. Photography ($1,400/$16,800). In this gig job, you're paid to capture images for events, portraits or commercial use. 6. Freelance Copyrighting ($1,270/$15,240). Copyright freelancers write marketing materials, articles or website content for customers on the side. 7. Graphic Design ($1,000/$12,000). In a graphic designer side hustle, you would create visual content for businesses like logos and marketing materials. 8. Lawn Care ($950/$11,400). Side hustles of this type would involve you mowing lawns and maintaining gardens. 9. Online Tutoring ($690/$8,280). Online tutors who side hustle help students with subjects like reading or math, some online and some face-to-face. 10. Social Media Management ($650/$7,800). In a social media manager side hustle, you would manage and grow social media presence for clients. Work ($650/$7,800). This gig job involves completing various tasks such as furniture assembly or moving help. 12. Proofreading ($610/$7,320). Proofreader side hustlers are in the business of reviewing and correcting written content for errors. 13. Car Sharing ($540/$6,480). As a gig job car sharer, you must have a valid driver's license which allows you to rent out your personal vehicle. 14. Bookkeeping ($460/$5,500). Bookkeeper side hustlers must have accounting knowledge to manage financial records usually for small businesses. 15. Virtual Assistant ($450/$5,400). Virtual assistant side hustlers provide administrative support remotely, which can include technological aid such as email management. 16. Rideshare Driver ($450/$5,400). Ridesharers have a side gig that uses their personal vehicles to provide transportation services to clients. 17. Delivery Driver ($400/$4,800). Delivery drivers have side gigs in which they make deliveries to customers such as restaurant food or groceries. 18. Notary Public ($400/$4,800). To side hustle as a notary public, you must have a state certification that allows you to witness and authenticate legal documents. 19. Pet Sitting/Dog Walking ($350/$4,200). This side hustle requires a love for animals and involves taking care of pets while the owners are away. 20. Online Surveys ($160/$1,920). As a side job responding to online surveys, you need no experience, just the willingness to participate in online market research surveys. 'Some of these side hustles can rival full-time wages," Benny Rehwald, founder of Topture, points out. 'Voiceover work or digital product sales can bring in thousands a month once the skills are in place. What stands out is how many of them require little to no formal education, just a practical skill and a few focused hours each week.' Rehwald says the fact that many can be done entirely from home makes them even more accessible, especially for people balancing full-time work, family or health. 'Income from side gigs has become more than just a backup plan,' he concludes. "For many, it's a key part of long-term financial strategy.
