Apple posts job teaching Siri to listen to users troubles

Apple posts job teaching Siri to listen to users troublesApple posts job teaching Siri to listen to users troublesAs we look toward a future of working hand in hand with machines, the future of work means hiring people to translate a robots engineered results into something familiar to human ears. As part of this future, Apple is hiring a trainer to teach its artificially intelligent voice interface, Siri, to have serious conversations.In a recent job listing, Apple announced that it is looking for someone to fill itsSiri Software Engineer, Health and Wellness role. As part of the qualifications, this candidate needs to both know how to code and how to engage in peer counseling.People talk to Siri about all kinds of things, including when theyre having a stressful day or have something serious on their mind. They turn to Siri in emergencies or when they want guidance on living a healthier life, the listing states. Does improving Siri in these areas pique your interest? Come work as p art of the Siri Domains team and make a difference.Is the future of mental health humans talking to machines?This job listing is part of a wider trend of super-intelligent assistants moving beyond the role of being just a smart appliance you can ask directions from. Now, companies are designing these assistants to go one step further and be your therapist. WoeBot, for example, is a Facebook Messenger bot that was created by Stanford psychologists and is programmed to capture your moods as you tell WoeBot about your day. Some robots are even being designed to be medical ethicists. Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technologydevelopeda robot, called an intervening ethical governor, to help patients with Parkinsons Disease have a neutral advocate in doctor-patient interactions.But there are many ethical and practical minefields to overcome before our next therapist or patient advocate is a robot. Some people are uncomfortable with the idea of a robot having more final say in decision s than a human. As one observer to a robot refereeing a patients interactions put it, If the robot stood there and told me to please calm down, Id smack him.Do you really want to tell Silicon Valley giants all your problems?And then theres the big hurdle that these AI-powered assistants are often owned by technology giants like Facebook and Apple, which dont currently have the same legal requirements to keep your questions about depression and stress private as licensed mental health workers do.In its disclaimer, WoeBot admits that Facebook can stillread the content of your messagesand know exactly who you are. While a licensed medical provider is bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act HIPAA to keep your medical information private, messenger bots and AI-assistants are under no such obligation.So you can talk to a robot about your problems, but these companies cannot guarantee that there wont be someone else listening in.Being engineer with a psychology bac kground is one step forward in addressing this new future of mental health in technology. The next step is hiring someone with familiarity in big data privacy issues.

How Jessica Chastain helped Octavia Spencer get 5x more pay

How Jessica Chastain helped Octavia Spencer get 5x more payHow Jessica Chastain helped Octavia Spencer get 5x more payWhen you find out your coworker is being underpaid, you can do more than listen to their complaints. Take the recent story of actresses Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer as a case study on how you can put words of solidarity into action.At a Sundance Film Festival panel on Wednesday, actressOctavia Spencer shared a story about how her friend and costar Jessica Chastain used her star power to bump up Spencers salary for an upcoming project after hearing she had a history of being underpaid.How Jessica Chastain helped Octavia Spencer get five times more in payDuring a recent conversation, Spencer said she and Chastain were passionately dropping F-bombs about gender pay gaps in Hollywood when Spencer noted that there are pay gaps between white women and women of color that also need to be addressed.I said, But heres the thing, women of color on that spectrum, we make far less than white women, Spencer recalled telling Chastain. And I told her my story, and we talked numbers, and she was quiet, and she said she had no idea that thats what it was like for women of color.While white women earn about 81 cents for every mans dollar, black women earn about 65 cents for every mans dollar, according to the Economic Policy Institute.When Chastain heard Spencers salary, she promised Spencer she would help her get paid more for the upcoming comedy they were slotted to star in together. Spencer said Chastain told the studio that their salaries would be bundled together, so that getting Chastain onboard to the project was conditional upon Spencer getting a better deal. She said You and I are gonna be tied together. Were gonna be favored nations, and were gonna make the same thing. You are going to make that amount, Spencer said. Fast-forward to last week, were making five times what we asked for.Walking the walkIt is one thing to talk about solidarity, its another to actually put your promises into action. Spencers story is a lesson for us all to find our Jessica Chastain allies in the office who are ready to more than talk to help us.Spencer later clarified that she did not know if Chastains help came at a cost to Chastains salary, but that she is eternally grateful for her help.

The healthiest office snacks for you to pick over a bag of chips

The healthiest office snacks for you to pick over a bag of chipsThe healthiest office snacks for you to pick over a bag of chipsHeres what we know for sure offices are riddled with unhealthy temptations. In fact, a 2016studyinto office eating habits found that even health-conscious employees get their diets sabotaged by food altars, or any site within an open workspace where food provided by individuals and brought from home is made available. You may eat a salad for lunch, but those cookies your coworkers brought from home are a sirens call that will lure you into their sugary depths.In the long-run, unterstellung kind of snacks are where diets are won and lost. Aboutone-quarter of the calories we consume on a daily basis come from snacks. The choice of snack foods available at your office are likely to determine your overall diet, one worksite wellness study found. If your office offered fruits and nuts, you were likelier to have a better diet quality, but if your office offered su gar-sweetened sodas and candies, your diet was likely to be poor. To combat the allure of unhealthy foods your office is tempting you with, you need to come armed with healthier snacks. Here are some of the bestVegetables with hummusCeleries and carrots fulfill one of the best qualities of an office snack portability. Nowadays, you can make these crunchy vegetables more flavorful with packets of hummus you can put in your lunch box. Take it from a nutrition expert who loves this combo. Veggies not only help keep me full between meals, but snacking on them is also an easy way to help meet my daily vegetable goals. I opt for fresh-cut carrots, red bell peppers or, if Im feeling a bit spicy, sliced radishes, Chris Vogliano, former teacher of food systems at the University of Washington, told CNN. If Im looking for a more complete snack, Ill often pair my veggies with hummus, which is packed with plant-based polypeptid and adds some additional fiber.Raw nutsNuts like pistachios and cash ews are another portable snack that you do not have to worry will melt on your commute. Almonds are a protein powerhouse that are particularly good at keeping hunger at bay. A 2013 study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that almonds, consumed as snacks, also reduced hunger and desire to eat during the acute-feeding session.YogurtPlain, low-fat, or Greek yogurt is a nutritious snack that can give you calcium, potassium and protein benefits. Unlike crunchy vegetables and noisy nuts, they are also a quieter snack to consume if loud chomping makes you self-conscious. One word to the wise, however avoid the flavored yogurts with jammy fruit at the bottom. As nutritionist Lisa Drayer put it, Steer clear of those with fruit on the bottom or other sweeteners, which can double or triple the sugar content, turning your healthful cup of yogurt into a higher-calorie dairy dessertAdd your own fresh berries to yogurt to boost natural sweetness and fiber.Cottage cheeseAlthough l ess popular in the big food business than yogurt for its texture, cottage cheese can have nutrition benefits that yogurt lacks. One recent New York Timesprofile documenting cottage cheese industrys comeback noted that, Cottage cheese can have twice the protein of some yogurts, though it has a lot more sodium.PopcornPopcorn can be a versatile, guilt-free snack to tide you over until your next meal. As Eating Well magazine noted, A 1-ounce serving (about 3 cups) of air-popped puffmais has 4 grams of fiber, almost 4 grams of protein, just over 1 gram of fat and clocks in at 110 calories. You can go beyond the typical salty profile and dress yours up with different flavors like nori seaweed, garlic or chili seasoning.BananasRequiring no refrigeration and widely available during every season, bananas are a cheap, fiber-filled snack. One banana has about 3.5 grams of fiber. As an easily digestible food, bananas are also the ideal snack if you are dealing with an upset stomach at work.Appl es with peanut butterApples are a versatile fiber-filled fruit that can handle some jostling in your carry-on bag. Pair them with a swab of natural peanut butter and you are in business. Although they have about 16 grams of fat per serving, peanut butters tastiness helps dieters stay on track. Studies now say that you dont just lose weight on the diet, but you stick with the diet better, because peanut butter is tastier and more satisfying, compared to other low-fat, high-carb diets, Holly McCord, nutrition editor of Prevention magazine, noted about the nut butters benefits.