Racial bias by artificial intelligence? Twitter users flag concerns

NEW DELHI: Social media users stumbled upon discrepancies on Sunday in how Twitter displays people with different skin tones, reopening a debate over whether computer programmes – particularly algorithms that “learn” – manifest or amplify real-world biases such as racism and sexism.

The problem was first discovered when education tech researcher Colin Madland posted about how video-calling software Zoom cropped the head out of a black person on the other side of a call, seemingly unable to detect it as a human face. When Madland posted a second photo combination showing the acquaintance visible, Twitter’s image display algorithm appeared to show his face in the preview.

Madland appeared to be a Caucasian with white skin.

Soon, several users replicated Twitter’s seemingly discriminatory manner of prioritising faces. In one of the most shared tweets, posted by cryptography engineer Tony Arcieri, Twitter only showed the face of Republican senator Mitch McConnell – a Caucasian -- as the preview of a combo photo that also involved former US President Barack Obama, who is of partly African descent.

A Twitter spokesperson acknowledged the problem and said the company was looking into it.

“Our team did test for bias before shipping the model and did not find evidence of racial or gender bias in our testing. But it’s clear from these examples that we’ve got more analysis to do. We’re looking into this and will continue to share what we learn and what actions we take,” this person told HT.