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Facebookâs issuing apologies for its AIâs bigotry again. This time, users watching a video of a Black man were asked it they were interested in more content on âprimates.â
The company, by way of apology, said:
As we have said, while we have made improvements to our AI, we know itâs not perfect, and we have more progress to make. We apologize to anyone who may have seen these offensive recommendations.
Up front: This is nowhere near the first time Facebookâs had a problem with its AIâs bigotry.
Whether itâs hiring algorithms that are flat out misogynistic, translation errors that result in wrongful imprisonment, or its blanket discrimination against queer people, Facebookâs AI is broken for everyone except straight white men.
Background: In fact, the only thing surprising about this particular problem is that it happened to Google about six years ago.
And thatâs the exact lens we should view these issues through when Facebook promises its algorithms will improve. When? At what point is it unacceptable to have product that, at its core, is discriminatory?
Realistically, Facebookâs apologies and promises are less than worthless: theyâre harmful.
You wouldnât sell a garage door opener that didnât work for Asians. You wouldnât install an elevator in your building with a sign that said âonly works for white men.â And you wouldnât purchase a driverless car that struggled to identify Black people as pedestrians.
But Facebook would. It uses myriad AI systems that, time and time again, demonstrably struggle to deal with women, Black faces, queer people, and almost any other marginalized group.
Quick take: Facebookâs valued at over a trillion dollars as of 2021. If it chose to only launch products that werenât racist, it wouldnât be.
Facebook willfully releases products that are inherently discriminatory because it feels that profiting off of racism is more acceptable than not profiting. Building algorithms that arenât discriminatory is, apparently, beyond the scope of modern technology.
As long as companies and their leadership teams are willing to peddle racism for profit, racism will remain profitable.
[Related: Facebook apologizes. It does other stuff too, but mostly it just apologizes]
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