Updated: 05.09.202106:57
After watching a film about black people, Facebook recommends watching a video about primates. The company speaks of an “unacceptable mistake”.
Menlo Park, California – Facebook publicly apologizing for a mistake isn’t too common. In most cases, a full-blown data protection affair like the “Cambridge Analytica” case is necessary for a request for indulgence from the headquarters in Menlo Park to reach the public. But what happened now forced even Facebook to react immediately and meekly.
The Facebook algorithm, often described as excellent, suggested users who had watched a video from a British tabloid with black men that they watch “more videos about primates”. Facebook then announced that it would investigate the artificial intelligence-based function and deactivate it for the time being.
Facebook apologizes for the recommendation
On Friday (September 2, 2021), Facebook also apologized for an “unacceptable error” and asserted that it would check the recommendation function to “prevent it from happening again”. The video from June 27, 2020 on which the announced insight is based came from The Daily Mail and showed clips of black men in clashes with white civilians and police officers. There was no connection to monkeys or primates.
Darci Groves, a former content design manager at Facebook, said that a friend sent her a screenshot of the request to “look at more about monkeys”. She then published the incident in a product feedback forum for current and former Facebook employees. In response, a product manager from Facebook Watch, the company’s video service, described the total failure of the algorithm as “unacceptable” and asserted that it is now looking for the cause.
Groves himself called the invitation to look “more about primates” “terrible and egregious”. Dani Lever, a Facebook spokeswoman, said in a statement: “As I said, we have made improvements to our AI, but we know that it is not perfect and that we need to make further progress. We apologize to everyone who has seen these offensive recommendations. “
Facebook has often been criticized for racism
Google, Amazon, and other tech companies have been scrutinizing biases in their artificial intelligence systems for years, particularly around issues of racism. Studies have shown that facial recognition technology is biased towards non-whites and struggles to identify them. This is said to have even led to blacks being discriminated against or arrested because of computer errors. In addition, Facebook was repeatedly accused of having tolerated the inflammatory posts * by former US President Donald Trump * for too long.
| Companies | Facebook Inc. |
| Seat | Menlo Park, California, USA |
| founding | February 2004, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
| CEO | Mark Zuckerberg |
Facebook has one of the world’s largest directories for user-uploaded images and has been training its algorithm on face and object recognition for some time. The company, which tailors content based on users’ browsing and viewing habits, asks its users from time to time if they would like to see posts in related categories. In the current example, it is unclear whether news on the subject of “primates” is really widespread. (Mirko Schmid)* fr.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
source https://pledgetimes.com/facebook-apologizes-algorithm-confuses-blacks-with-monkeys/
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