78 TIME April 11/April 18, 2022
INNOVATORSMODULATE
SHUTTING DOWN ABUSE
Verbal abuse often ruins otherwise great
online multiplayer games. Modulate has
a solution in the form of ToxMod, a rst-
of-its-kind platform that uses arti cial
intelligence to detect sexism, racism,
or other forms of abuse in games, and
alert human moderators, who can issue
warnings or ban offenders. The goal, says
co-founder and chief technology of cer
Carter Huffman, is to make games “safer
and more inclusive.” ToxMod is already in
use in major titles like Rec Room, which
began deploying the tech for its 37 million
users last year. —Alex Fitzpatrick
FLEXPORT
UNTANGLING THE
SUPPLY CHAIN
When California’s Port of Long Beach
was bottlenecked last year, Flexport CEO
Ryan Petersen tweeted his proposed
solution: empty containers needed to be
stacked higher to clear room. (They later
were.) Petersen’s shipment- tracking rm
solves similar problems for customers
daily, and to great success: Flexport made
$3.3 billion in revenue last year amid
the supply-chain crisis, up 154%. More
recently, Flexport raised over $19.5 million
to deliver goods for Ukrainian refugees.
—Guadalupe Gonzalez
JOROTracking your
emissions
After struggling to monitor her carbon
footprint, Sanchali Pal developed
an app to automatically estimate her
emissions based on her credit-card
spending. The app, named Joro after
the earth goddess of Norse mythology,
went live in April 2020, and since then
it has helped its users track, reduce, and
offset the emissions of everything they
buy; in 2021, Joro’s users reduced their
emissions by 21%. “If everyone did that,
then reaching net zero by 2050 suddenly
seems a lot more achievable,” says Pal,
Joro’s CEO and founder. Pal recognizes
that to achieve real climate progress,
companies and governments will have
to make changes too, but she’s hopeful
that Joro’s data demonstrates people’s
demand for carbon reduction.
—Aryn BakerPIGEONLY
CONNECTING FAMILIES
High costs and inadequate phone
services can make it difi cult for
incarcerated people and their loved
ones to keep in touch. Pigeonly, which
enables users to look up an inmate
and then helps them set up a prison
phone account, offers rates of just 6¢
a minute, compared with an average
of $1 per minute for most U.S. prisons
and jails. The company, which operates
in over 70 U.S. and international
jurisdictions, is at the forefront of global
efforts to humanely reform prison and
jail systems. —Josiah Bates
SANCHALI PAL