Flawed Voice Recognition Evidence Leads to Mass Deportations: A Case Study in AI Governance

January 1, 2014

The international testing organization ETS acknowledges using allegedly flawed voice recognition technology as evidence of cheating for thousands of TOEIC test-takers, potentially resulting in wrongful deportation. This incident underscores the importance of responsible AI, and demonstrates a need for robust AI governance mechanisms. Ready to help shape trustworthy AI? JOIN US This AI incident maps to the Govern function in HISPI Project Cerebellum Trusted AI Model (TAIM).
Alleged deployer
ets
Alleged developer
ets
Alleged harmed parties
uk-ets-past-test-takers, uk-ets-test-takers, uk-home-office

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/162

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.