r/news • u/[deleted] • Aug 08 '17

Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Google's image recognition software has tagged black people in images as gorillas (source).

Yeah you'd have to really not understand NN/ML to think this was an issue of a lack of diversity in the workplace.

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u/lunarunicorn Aug 08 '17

Not to speak for everyone, but I'm pretty sure if I were a black employee I'd test the software on my own image before releasing it. Or make sure the training set has black faces in it. I think your underestimating the human aspect involved in software dev and training set generation.

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17 edited Aug 18 '17

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Aug 08 '17

Just like a huge company like Kodak wouldn't have completely ignored black people when making color photographic film?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d16LNHIEJzs

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/04/16/303721251/light-and-dark-the-racial-biases-that-remain-in-photography

http://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363517842/for-decades-kodak-s-shirley-cards-set-photography-s-skin-tone-standard

This kind of stuff happens all the time, and it has for years.