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A group of internet businesses, including Roblox, Google, OpenAI, and Discord, have cofounded a nonprofit called Robust Open Online Safety Tools (ROOST). The new organization will fund free, open-source tools for online businesses to promote online safety, says Naren Koneru, Roblox’s vice president of engineering, trust, and safety. The move follows years of efforts by Roblox to restrict inappropriate messaging on its platform, which is widely used by children and has at times come under fire for not doing enough to combat sexual content and adult sexual predators. And while human moderators are part of that equation, AI and automation have become critical for intercepting real-time unwanted messages across the platform’s 85 million daily active users, Koneru says. “These decisions need to happen within milliseconds,” he says. Among the tools Roblox has developed is an open-source AI model that analyzes audio clips to detect profanity, racism, bullying, sexting, and other disallowed content. The model was released to the public last July, available on GitHub and the AI platform Hugging Face, and it’s since been downloaded more than 20,000 times. The company has since developed a new version of the model, with support for additional languages including Spanish, French, German and Japanese, as well as additional infrastructure for fine-tuning the model to particular needs. That will likely be open sourced by the end of the first quarter of 2025, and the company anticipates unveiling other open-source tools for classifying content later in the year. By contributing to ROOST (and acting as co-chair of a technical advisory committee), Roblox will also be able support such open-source efforts, aiming to create AI models that can be used by organizations of all sizes to moderate content, especially around child safety. “While large companies like us can invest in systems like this, ” says Koneru, “if you’re a small game developer and you want to build all these safety systems, it’s almost next to impossible today to do it right.” Some AI systems may even be hosted by ROOST itself, allowing outside companies to easily integrate them via API calls rather than handling complex infrastructure, Koneru says. “They may actually not just open-source models, but they will also possibly run these hosted services where you can just call an API, as opposed to even worrying about all of these nitty-gritty details of, how do you run this model in a super efficient way,” he says. ROOST may also release open-source infrastructure for labeling sample training data, like examples of allowed and disallowed content, and manage how it’s used to train and refine AI systems. That includes technology to effectively manage large-scale human moderation efforts and ensure consistency in decisions around rules (to ensure AI models are trained on reliable samples). In addition to the for-profit companies, ROOST is backed by a variety of philanthropic organizations, including the Future of Online Trust and Safety Fund, Knight Foundation, AI Collaborative and the McGovern Foundation. It’s raised over $27 million to support its first four years of operation.
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E-Commerce
In an interview with Joe Rogan last month, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg made a plea for companies to embrace more masculine energy. Zuckerberg went on to say, A culture that celebrates the aggression a bit more has its own merits. Never mind that Meta (then Facebook) became one of the worlds more profitable companies when COO Sheryl Sandberg ran its day-to-day operations. Or that Sandberg urged women to lean in by actively pursuing leadership roles and embracing opportunities in the workplace, sparking a global community dedicated to helping foster leadership, advancement and inclusion for women in the workplace. When a very powerful CEO who has platforms that nearly half of the world’s population use says something like that, regardless of what his intent and his definitions are and his meaning of it is, there’s a whole lens around individual bias and how it will be perceived, says Samantha Katz, founder of business consultancy Actual Markets LLC in Manhattan. Even before Zuckerbergs comments about male energy, women say they were noticing a resurgence of masculinity in the workplace. Senior male leaders are no longer hiding that they find it objectionable that they cant discuss certain topics or say certain jokes in the workplace, says Alma Derricks, founder and managing partner at REV, a business consulting firm in Los Angeles. Zuckerbergs comment was an attempt to crush anything qualitative, Derricks says. To talk about mental health, wellness, and balance is seen as weak minded and it doesnt have a place in the workplace. Heres how women are pushing back against toxic male energy in the workplace. Don’t alienate allies Be careful not to alienate potential male allies by conflating bro behavior with truly toxic masochistic behavior, warns Eliza VanVanCort, author of A Womens Guide to Claiming Space. When we say, bros are doing this, we are taking out one section of the population who might actually be allies for us, and at this point, since our voices aren’t being heard, we need every ally possible, VanCort says. Someone can be masculine and still believe in equity, justice and inclusivity, she says. I think the problem with calling it bro culture is it sends a message to young men that being a bro means being an aggressor, VanCort says. Instead of calling out the bro culture, she recommends calling out aggressive and dominating male behavior when you see it. Ask ‘What do you mean?’ The easiest way to combat a microaggression is to ask, What do you mean? For example, when one of VanCorts clients was recognized for the profits she brought to the company, her boss said in front of all her male colleagues, Were so proud of you. You made so much money last quarter, and I hope that you didnt spend it all on a new purse. Rather than taking the bait and getting angry, the client simply said, What do you mean? Her boss stammered and said, Well, you know, its funny. A new purse is funny. When she further responded with, So, you think its funny that I would spend money on a new purse, a male coworker stepped in and told the boss his remark wasnt funny. When you point out a microaggression by asking a question, its more difficult to be accused of being sensitive or overreacting, VanCort said. Dont be complicit Women are often told to stand up for each other in meetings yet that can be difficult, especially if you and your colleague havent discussed a plan for supporting each other. Your response to toxic behavior during a meeting doesn’t have to be profound. Simply respond by saying, Huh, VanCort says. Aggressors depend on everyone around them being complicit when they hear passive aggressive comments or witness microaggressions, VanCort says. By saying, huh, you are very subtly saying, I am not going to follow you in this behavior.” Talk about your salary The best thing that you can do for other women at work is talk about how much money you make, says Allison Venditti, CEO and founder of Moms at Work in Toronto, Canada. Many U.S. companies have a presence in Canada, Venditti says, so its evitable that Canadian women will encounter similar attitudes in the workplace. Share information with female colleagues, especially younger female employees, about how to succeed in the workplace, how to get promoted and how to negotiate a higher salary, Venditti says. Use your buying power Women control 85% of household spending, according to TechCrunch. Women pick where we buy our cars, do the research for buying minivans, we buy all our kids’ clothes, we decide where we go on vacation, Venditti says. One of the easiest ways to push back on male energy is with your buying power, Venditti says. She is urging women to cancel their Amazon accounts after the company scaled back its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and to stop shopping at Target after the company began phasing out its DEI programs. If you’re not standing up for women, why would I shop at your store?
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E-Commerce
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages ofInc.andFast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you cansign up to get it yourselfevery Monday morning. Consumers will spend a whopping $27.5 billion on Valentines Day this year, up from $25.8 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation. For 1-800-Flowers.com, the purveyor of candy, cards, andyesflowers, February 14 is a bit like its Super Bowl, with year-long planning for the holiday. Beyond bouquets Founder, chairman, and CEO Jim McCann, who started the business in 1976 when he acquired a flower shop in Manhattan, says Valentines Day has expanded from an observance of romantic love to an opportunity to give gifts to friends, loved ones, and even pets. Historically, men made up 90% of purchasers during the holiday. We now see men making up less than 70% of our customers who purchase for Valentines Day, and the recipient has broadened beyond the sweetheart to moms and sisters and children, McCann says. Thats resulted, frankly, in it becoming a bigger holiday for us. The retailer has responded in kind, introducing pet-themed items (pet owners are expected to spend $2 billion on Valentines Day) and a collaboration with lifestyle brand LoveShackFancy featuring pastel-hued cookies and flowers suitable for Galentines Day celebrations of female friendship. The company also offers trending items such as black roses, designed to appeal to Gen Z. In all, the company says it will deliver 24 million flowers for Valentines Day. Fixing make-or-break tech When I asked McCann how he leads his organization through demand surges, I expected him to talk about supply chain, marketing campaigns, and staffing. Instead, he openly spoke about the companys work to correct problems caused by the implementation of a new order management system at the companys Harry & David fruit and prepared foods unit during the December holiday season. The system had trouble managing some complex orders, which caused delivery delays, frustrated customers, and some canceled orders. Though his seasoned team has deep experience in the business, sometimes mistakes happen, McCann says. Flower delivery and other units such as Sharis Berries and The Popcorn Factory dont use the same system, but they share a common customer service platform that was overwhelmed by the holiday season snafu. On a recent earnings call, 1-800-Flowers.com executives said many of the issues with the order system have been resolved. We can hopefully come out a better management company as a result of it, because we cannot escape the changes of technology that are upon us and coming ever faster, McCann tells me. Embracing the flops McCanns willingness to own up to mistakes is nothing new. He frequently writes about mistakes hes made in his career and even maintains a Wall of Shame at company headquarters dedicated to celebrating every stumble, flop, and facepalm moment our team has had over the years, he says. Of course, leaders and companies have to do more than just own up to their errorsthey have to learn from them and figure out how to take calculated or mitigated risks. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmonson writes about intelligent failure in her book Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well. She contends that failing well is necessary if companies ever expect to break new ground. McCanns unabashed embrace of his own failures is a stark contrast to many other founders, who swagger about with an air of infallibility. (For more on these imperious folks, check out Inc. editor-at-large Bill Saporitos story on The cult of the entrepreneur.) Indeed, when I asked McCann if 1-800-Flowers.com benefitted from having a founder as CEO, he demurred. There are other people who are better at managing, and there are things that I could do that they cant do because of the unique situation Im in, having lived and breathed [this business] my whole adult life and having such a passion for it, he says. I dont think Im the best CEO thats ever lived. I think Im pretty good at envisioning what we are and what we can be. What’s your biggest ‘my bad’ moment? Do you have a wall of shame at your company? What was your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it? Send your comments to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Id like to share some of your insights in an upcoming newsletter dedicated to failure. Read more: on failing The Silicon Valley man obsessed with failure The biggest business failures of 2024 3 successful designers on the lessons of failure
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E-Commerce
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