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The bug is in the classifier in that I would want a high accuracy in classifying. I doubt this is the only error it makes, just the most visible. So google isn’

The bug is in the classifier in that I would want a high accuracy in classifying. I doubt this is the only error it makes, just the most visible. So google isn’t prioritizing accurately classifying black people, just they hard coded to never classify gorillas. Presumably because their classifier is still wrong enough that it would think black people are not people. If they cared about this problem rather than just thinking it’s a “beehive” to be avoided rather than a real problem, then they would fix it. But they don’t actually care about accuracy in classifying people of some races, so they just avoid it. Not super racist, but definitely shows they don’t care about this type of bug in that the affected populations aren’t important to them. I understand not caring about gorillas, but I would expect they should be very interested in accurately classifying black people.

megaman821 3y ago
Let's say the classified gets it right 999,999 times out of a million. It's about as fixed as it will ever be. Why would Google bring it back when there will be dozens of instances of them getting it wrong a year? It is mostly downside with very little upside. You can actually find things the Google probably thinks are gorillas and monkeys by searching for "zoo".
surgical_fire 3y ago
> Presumably because their classifier is still wrong enough that it would think black people are not people. That is a very weird interpretation. The classifier is likely accurate enough to be useful, with many edge cases where things are mislabeled. Edge cases might be difficult to fix without causing other issues, or perhaps the technology to be more accurate is just not there yet. One of those edge cases causes a massive shitstorm on social media, where many people would love to scream "racism" at it. So we have two possibilities: 1) Put an indeterminate amount of effort to make things more accurate. It won't bring any benefit (as the current classifier is accurate enough), and if you keep mislabeling black people as monkeys even in rare cases, people will still yell on social media. Beehive indeed. 2) Hardcode gorillas out of the classifier. This solves the issue with minimal effort and causes no shitstorm, besides some annoying people grumbling that it is still racist, but with no substance to their claims. The choice, to me, is obvious.

megaman821 3y ago

Let's say the classified gets it right 999,999 times out of a million. It's about as fixed as it will ever be. Why would Google bring it back when there will be dozens of instances of them getting it wrong a year? It is mostly downside with very little upside. You can actually find things the Google probably thinks are gorillas and monkeys by searching for "zoo".

surgical_fire 3y ago

> Presumably because their classifier is still wrong enough that it would think black people are not people. That is a very weird interpretation. The classifier is likely accurate enough to be useful, with many edge cases where things are mislabeled. Edge cases might be difficult to fix without causing other issues, or perhaps the technology to be more accurate is just not there yet. One of those edge cases causes a massive shitstorm on social media, where many people would love to scream "racism" at it. So we have two possibilities: 1) Put an indeterminate amount of effort to make things more accurate. It won't bring any benefit (as the current classifier is accurate enough), and if you keep mislabeling black people as monkeys even in rare cases, people will still yell on social media. Beehive indeed. 2) Hardcode gorillas out of the classifier. This solves the issue with minimal effort and causes no shitstorm, besides some annoying people grumbling that it is still racist, but with no substance to their claims. The choice, to me, is obvious.