Google Apologises For Photos App's Racist Blunder

Mark Wilson writes: Google has issued an apology after the automatic tagging feature of its Photos apps labeled a black couple as "gorillas". This is not the first time an algorithm has been found to have caused racial upset. Earlier in the year Flickr came under fire after its system tagged images of concentration camps as sports venues and black people as apes. The company was criticized on social networks after a New York software developer questioned the efficacy of Google's algorithm. Accused of racism, Google said that it was "appalled" by what had happened, branding it as "100% not OK".

Comments

Re:Accepting Responsibility

[narcc]

How is this not their fault? They clearly didn't test their software properly. Their software produced completely unacceptable results. They're right to apologize.

You're admitting bad behavior and bad decisions for something that was good behavior and good decision-making

Good decisions? Sorry, but releasing poorly tested software like this was obviously a bad decision. The bad outcomes were a direct result of their poor decision making.

Reasonable people take responsibility for their mistakes. They don't play pretend that "they did everything right" and that their failures were completely beyond their control.

You sound like the kid who demands a trophy for participation.