after its new Photos app
categorized photos in one of the
most racist ways possible.
On June
28th, computer programmer Jacky
Alciné found that the feature kept
tagging pictures of him and his
girlfriend as “gorillas.” He tweeted
at Google asking what kind of
sample images the company had
used that would allow such a
terrible mistake to happen.
Google came under fire this week
after its new Photos app
categorized photos in one of the
most racist ways possible. On June
28th, computer programmer Jacky
Alciné found that the feature kept
tagging pictures of him and his
girlfriend as “gorillas.” He tweeted
at Google asking what kind of
sample images the company had
used that would allow such a
terrible mistake to happen.
Google’s chief social architect
Yonatan Zunger responded quickly,
apologizing for the feature.
As part of the new Photos app,
users’ photos can be tagged and
arranged automatically based on
objects in the photos. For instance,
pictures of skyscrapers are all
arranged in an album
appropriately labeled
“skyscrapers.” The tag feature
learns as it receives more data,
refining its method for recognizing
and categorizing objects. The
feature is flawed, but
categorization isn’t the only step in
photography that companies have
had trouble with.
For years, Kodak used a coating on
its film that favored Caucasian skin
tones, making it more difficult to
shoot darker skin. Nikon and other
consumer camera companies have
also had a history of showing bias
to white faces with their facial
recognition software. Zunger says
that Google has had similar issues
with facial recognition due to
inadequate analysis of skin tones
and lighting. “We used to have a
problem with people (of all races)
being tagged as dogs,” Zunger says.
Google attempted to fix the
algorithm, but ultimately removed
the gorilla label altogether. Zunger
noted that the company is working
on longer-term fixes that revolve
around which labels could be
problematic and better recognition
of dark-skinned faces.
No comments:
Post a Comment