Facebook's Algorithm Misidentifies Onion Advertisement as Sexual Content: A Case for Responsible AI

October 3, 2020

This AI incident highlights the need for safe and secure AI governance. Facebook's content moderation algorithm mistakenly identified an advertisement containing a photo of onions as overtly sexual content, which was later corrected after review. 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
facebook
Alleged developer
facebook
Alleged harmed parties
the-seed-company-by-e.w.-gaze, businesses-on-facebook

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/282

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.