Google has not fixed AI that labels black people as apes

GOOGLE artificial intelligence (AI) software that once mistakenly labelled a black couple as “gorillas” has not been rectified in the eight years since the incident, it has emerged.

While no fix has was found, the tech giant has kept a function to search for gorillas or other primates firmly switched off amid fears that the error could happen again. Google issued an apology and Yonatan Zunger, a former executive, had said it was working on “longer-term fixes” to improve recognition of people of colour.

AI recognition software sorts and analyses photographs, meaning users can quickly filter through tens of thousands of images by searching keywords.

The New York Times used 44 images to test the company’s AI software. When it searched Google Photos for cats and kangaroos, the correct images were identified. But the software failed to

‘You have to think about how often someone needs to label a gorilla versus ... harmful stereotypes’ find any images when it searched for gorillas, baboons, chimpanzees, orangutans and monkeys, despite including photographs of these animals.

It found the same issue with Apple Photos, where several specific animals could be located but there were no results for any primates.

Michael Marconi, a Google spokesman, said the company had switched off the app’s ability to label anything as a monkey or ape because the benefit “does not outweigh the risk of harm”.

Jacky Alcine, a software engineer, who first raised the issue with Google, said he is “going to forever have no faith in this AI” after learning the issue had not been rectified.

Dr Margaret Mitchell, of Google’s Ethical AI group, previously said that she supported Google’s decision to remove the gorillas label from its recognition software.

Dr Mitchell, who no longer works at Google, said: “You have to think about how often someone needs to label a gorilla versus perpetuating harmful stereotypes. The benefits don’t outweigh the potential harms of doing it wrong.”

“It only takes one mistake to have massive social ramifications,” she said, referring to it as “the poisoned needle in a haystack”. Google and Apple were approached for comment.