Amazon AI Error Hides Gay and Lesbian Books
May 23, 2008
An unintended AI algorithm error in Amazon's book store resulted in books featuring gay and lesbian themes being hidden from the sales platform due to loss of ranking. This incident underscores the importance of trustworthy AI, including its role in AI governance for harm prevention. This AI incident maps to the Govern function in HISPI Project Cerebellum Trusted AI Model (TAIM). Ready to help shape responsible AI? JOIN US
- Alleged deployer
- amazon
- Alleged developer
- amazon
- Alleged harmed parties
- amazon-customers
Source
Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/15
Data source
Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).
When citing the database as a whole, please use:
McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.
Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide
We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.