Bias in AI-Powered Image Search: Google's Three Teenagers Incident

A recent study comparing image search results for 'three black teenagers' and 'three white teenagers' on Google revealed a striking disparity, sparking controversy and calls for responsible AI governance. The study showed that the images returned in the search results were more likely to be associated with crime or danger when the search term was 'three black teenagers'. This incident highlights the need for safe and secure AI practices, as well as trustworthy AI management systems like HISPI Project Cerebellum TAIM.

Matched TAIM controls

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

GOVERN 3.1 — similarity 0.492, rank 1. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MAP 1.6 — similarity 0.486, rank 2. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MAP 3.1 — similarity 0.473, rank 3. TAIM detail and related incidents →

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.