Google Vision Cloud Bias Experiment

In an experiment that became viral on Twitter, AlgorithmWatch showed that Google Vision Cloud, a computer vision service, labeled an image of a dark-skinned individual holding a thermometer “gun” while a similar image with a light-skinned individual was labeled “electronic device”. A subsequent experiment showed that the image of a dark-skinned hand holding a thermometer was labelled “gun” and that the same image with a salmon-colored overlay on the hand was enough for the computer to label it “monocular”. Hand 77% Gun 61% Hand 72% Monocular 60% On 3 April, Google Vision Cloud produced starkly different labels after an overlay was added.

An infographic compares Google Vision Cloud’s labels for images of a hand holding a thermometer. The system labels the dark-skinned hand as “gun,” but after a salmon-colored overlay is added, it labels the same hand “monocular,” illustrating racial bias and absurd errors in computer vision. It is shared as a reaction to biased algorithms, flawed AI, or ridiculous machine-learning results.

• @profunctor_io / 5215 2020-08-30