Microsoft's robot editors confuses mixed-race Little Mix singers

[Gimme More 35,408]

Microsoft recently announced it was planning to replace journalists on its MSN news website with artificial intelligence algorithms. 

However, this decision has already backfired as the software recently chose to illustrate a news story about racism with a photo of the wrong member of the band Little Mix. 

Recently, one of the band’s singers Jade Thirlwall appeared on the No Country For Young Women podcast to discuss how she was bullied at school because of her Arabian heritage. When Microsoft’s AI ran the story on MSN, an image of Thirlwall’s fellow band member Leigh-Anne Pinnock was featured with the story instead of Thirlwall.

Thirlwall took to Instagram to criticise the publication. “@MSN If you’re going to copy and paste articles from other accurate media outlets, you might want to make sure you’re using an image of the correct mixed-race member of the group. 

“This **** happens to @leighannpinnock and I ALL THE TIME that it’s become a running joke. It offends me that you couldn’t differentiate the two women of colour out of four members of a group … DO BETTER," she said.

Even before the incident, Pinnock posted on social media to discuss her experiences of racism in the UK, and specifically mentioned how Thirlwall and herself are regularly mixed up in the media. 

Following the MSN incident, a spokesperson for Microsoft said: “As soon as we became aware of this issue, we immediately took action to resolve it and have replaced the incorrect image.”

However, it points to the issues surrounding bias in AI. Software is built by people and people all have inherent biases which can lead to problems in the product. For instance, a few years ago an algorithm in Google was mistakenly classifying black people as “gorillas”.

The tech company now has a head of ethical machine learning, Jen Gennai, who leads a team which interrogates new products and services to ensure that issues like this don’t crop up again. “If we’re going to set up a new technology, we need to make sure that technology is right from the start,” she told the Standard. 

There are other ways bias manifests itself in AI. Last year, a survey by YouGov found that smart speakers were more likely to understand men than women, which is down to the models the AI is trained on, and the pitch of different voices. 

In Microsoft’s case, by handing over the curation of its MSN website, from headlines to images and what stories to feature, unless the AI that’s being used to make the decisions is completely free of bias, these problems will continue to surface. 

[gag 22,449]

3 minutes ago, Gimme More said:

This isn't the point (what happened is horrendous and needs addressing in the AI field ASAP) but they are SO gorgeous here 

[NewUsername 11,447]

mess.

[Ryusei 61,110]

Oh is this why there is the wrong picture of someone on articles sometimes? Cause sometimes you can google and you could take the first 100 pictures and they‘re all of the right person and they somehow manage to have the picture of another person on their article... 

[Gimme More 35,408]

1 hour ago, gag said:

This isn't the point (what happened is horrendous and needs addressing in the AI field ASAP) but they are SO gorgeous here 

so stunning 

[BlackCrown 1,794]

"replace journalists on its MSN news website with artificial intelligence algorithms."

[Guest]

I didnt know Jade was mixed race

[Gimme More 35,408]

6 minutes ago, KanyeWest said:

I didnt know Jade was mixed race

Yes, Jade's grandfather was Arabic - Jade used to get badly bullied at school because of her race, she even mentioned how one time she was pinned down at school and some girls tried to draw a Bindi on her  disgusting people.

[Blake 7,385]

It's the fact that it's been happening for a long time though, not just recently.