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I'm glad to see a representative actually know things like this. Too many of our representatives are technologically illiterate.

dgzl 8y ago
ahem Maybe you would be interested in something like term-limits for Congress?
- hannasanarion 8y ago
  Term limits for congresspeople are a bad idea. They work for the presidency, because the president holds immense power and can use that power to build an unassailable base for themselves. Term limits for individual congresspeople, whose power is pretty small in the grand scheme, amounts to arbitrary over-ruling of the people with little to no tangible benefit.
adlkjnndnnd 8y ago
Does her tweet really imply any knowledge of it? Maybe she just read in the newspaper about the Google face recognition labeling a black woman as a gorilla?
- hannasanarion 8y ago
  Are you saying that face recognition calling black people gorillas is a good thing that we should all be unconcerned about?
  - adlkjnndnnd 8y ago
    What makes you think that? No, of course not. I'm just saying having read that gorilla story doesn't imply any degree of technical understanding. Also, I have to say I considered it hyperbole to be outraged about the Gorilla. It seems pretty obvious that it was just a mistake with the data, not intentional. It is a good warning for things to watch out for, but there wasn't really anything racist about it. Iirc there are even physical reasons why it is more difficult to identify black faces than white faces. Is that then racist, if an algorithm struggles more with identifying black faces?
    - hannasanarion 8y ago
      >I'm just saying having read that gorilla story doesn't imply any degree of technical understanding. Is great technical understanding required before one can evaluate whether a program that labels black people as gorillas is functioning appropriately? >Iirc there are even physical reasons why it is more difficult to identify black faces than white faces. Is that then racist, if an algorithm struggles more with identifying black faces? So you're saying that black people are innately similar to gorillas, and an algorithm can't be blamed for failing to distinguish them? - If you're trotting out that grand old "black people all look the same" thing, then yep, that's racist too. Black people tend to have different points of variation in facial features (jaw, chin, ear, and brow shape instead of eye and lip shape and color for white people). Inability to differentiate one face from another means not tracking the correct identifying features, which means racist algorithmic design.
      - adlkjnndnnd 8y ago
        "So you are saying" - are you saying you are really a parody/troll account, referring to that infamous Jordan Peterson interview? No, I am not "saying". My comment was in response to praise of AOCs alleged technical understanding, not of her ability to judge the gorilla algorithm. And you don't seem to understand what algorithms do. A simple algorithm could count pixels in an image. If most pixels are white, it could say "human", if most pixels are "black", it could say "gorilla". It would be a verify bad classifier, that would only work in a number of cases. For that algorithm, you could say a black person would be more similar to a gorilla. But nobody would "be saying" black people are similar to gorillas, just that the algorithm would be more likely to classify them as such. Are you saying people would use the "authority" of such an algorithm to claim black people are gorillas? "If you're trotting out that grand old "black people all look the same" thing" I didn't - stop imagining so many things. I am not a photographer. I think there were issues with the lighting and contrast. Physical issues. Other commentator claims it is just because film equipment was calibrated that way. Even then I would dispute the "racist" label. There are many different looking people on the planet. Just because you can not account for all of them, it is not racist. I am inclined to call your attitude racist, because you assume everybody is surrounded by the same mix of people (like in the US), and maliciously chooses to ignore certain types. That overlooks the reality of people who are not surrounded by an even mix of people of all types.

dgzl 8y ago

ahem Maybe you would be interested in something like term-limits for Congress?

hannasanarion 8y ago
Term limits for congresspeople are a bad idea. They work for the presidency, because the president holds immense power and can use that power to build an unassailable base for themselves. Term limits for individual congresspeople, whose power is pretty small in the grand scheme, amounts to arbitrary over-ruling of the people with little to no tangible benefit.

adlkjnndnnd 8y ago

Does her tweet really imply any knowledge of it? Maybe she just read in the newspaper about the Google face recognition labeling a black woman as a gorilla?

hannasanarion 8y ago
Are you saying that face recognition calling black people gorillas is a good thing that we should all be unconcerned about?
- adlkjnndnnd 8y ago
  What makes you think that? No, of course not. I'm just saying having read that gorilla story doesn't imply any degree of technical understanding. Also, I have to say I considered it hyperbole to be outraged about the Gorilla. It seems pretty obvious that it was just a mistake with the data, not intentional. It is a good warning for things to watch out for, but there wasn't really anything racist about it. Iirc there are even physical reasons why it is more difficult to identify black faces than white faces. Is that then racist, if an algorithm struggles more with identifying black faces?
  - hannasanarion 8y ago
    >I'm just saying having read that gorilla story doesn't imply any degree of technical understanding. Is great technical understanding required before one can evaluate whether a program that labels black people as gorillas is functioning appropriately? >Iirc there are even physical reasons why it is more difficult to identify black faces than white faces. Is that then racist, if an algorithm struggles more with identifying black faces? So you're saying that black people are innately similar to gorillas, and an algorithm can't be blamed for failing to distinguish them? - If you're trotting out that grand old "black people all look the same" thing, then yep, that's racist too. Black people tend to have different points of variation in facial features (jaw, chin, ear, and brow shape instead of eye and lip shape and color for white people). Inability to differentiate one face from another means not tracking the correct identifying features, which means racist algorithmic design.
    - adlkjnndnnd 8y ago
      "So you are saying" - are you saying you are really a parody/troll account, referring to that infamous Jordan Peterson interview? No, I am not "saying". My comment was in response to praise of AOCs alleged technical understanding, not of her ability to judge the gorilla algorithm. And you don't seem to understand what algorithms do. A simple algorithm could count pixels in an image. If most pixels are white, it could say "human", if most pixels are "black", it could say "gorilla". It would be a verify bad classifier, that would only work in a number of cases. For that algorithm, you could say a black person would be more similar to a gorilla. But nobody would "be saying" black people are similar to gorillas, just that the algorithm would be more likely to classify them as such. Are you saying people would use the "authority" of such an algorithm to claim black people are gorillas? "If you're trotting out that grand old "black people all look the same" thing" I didn't - stop imagining so many things. I am not a photographer. I think there were issues with the lighting and contrast. Physical issues. Other commentator claims it is just because film equipment was calibrated that way. Even then I would dispute the "racist" label. There are many different looking people on the planet. Just because you can not account for all of them, it is not racist. I am inclined to call your attitude racist, because you assume everybody is surrounded by the same mix of people (like in the US), and maliciously chooses to ignore certain types. That overlooks the reality of people who are not surrounded by an even mix of people of all types.