Google came under heavy criticisms after a new photo application malfunction was tagged as racism. The new photo application categorized a black man and his girlfriend as gorillas. This was reported to Google for fixing and an apology has been tendered.
Google just developed a new photo application but unfortunately, the phone application went haywire. The malfunction was exposed on the 28th of June when a Programmer Jacky Alciné found that the feature kept tagging pictures of him and his girlfriend as “gorillas.” He tweeted at Google to make enquiries about the programmed sample images used which could have caused such. This was widely tagged as racism.
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.
The application seems to be getting massive acceptance from people.