Reply to post: Is the software really broken?

Is the software really broken?

The whole point of machine learning software is that it gets fed input, does a classification and generates output.

The software is not broken, it just has not been fed with good data. It clearly needs more black people in its learning set so it can tell the difference between a gorilla and a black person. This is no different from the recent NSFW classification by, IIRC, FB that classified pictures of girly bits as butterflies.

But no, the numpties think there's racist software that goes

if (image_property.black_face) printf("gorilla.\n");

These classifications come from what people type in. As black people can call other black people "nigger" without the PC alarms going off, we'll also see these classification engines generate outputs like "nigger", "bro"... and no doubt the technically illiterate will think Google added more code that says

if (image_property.black_face) printf("nigger");