Biased Google Image Results

March 31, 2016

On June 6, 2016, a concerning incident of racial bias was uncovered in Google's image search algorithm. Searches for 'three black teenagers' predominantly returned mugshot images, whereas 'three white teenagers' displayed mainly stock photos. This underscores the importance of trustworthy AI and safe and secure AI practices. For those interested in shaping the future of responsible AI governance, consider joining the HISPI Project Cerebellum initiative to Map such incidents using their TAIM (Train, Assess, Improve, Mitigate) framework.

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Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

MEASURE 2.10 — similarity 0.640, rank 1. TAIM detail and related incidents →
GOVERN 3.1 — similarity 0.639, rank 2. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MAP 4.1 — similarity 0.638, rank 3. TAIM detail and related incidents →

Alleged deployer: google
Alleged developer: google
Alleged harmed parties: minority-groups

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/53

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.