Google Photos App Tags Black People As 'Gorillas'

Google recently experienced some algorithm issues, resulting to its Photo app tagging black people as gorillas.

CNet reported that Jacky Alcine, a black web developer, pointed out how Google’s Photo app, offensively labeled an image of him and his friend as gorillas. The tag appeared in a feature that automatically categorizes pictures, with the objective of making these more easily searchable. There was a problem with Google’s algorithms which may have categorized black people and gorillas together, resulting to the auto-tag.

When Google discovered the incident with Alcine’s image, the company immediately apologized and tried to solve the issue.

A google spokeswoman Katie Watson stated in a report by USA Today, "We're appalled and genuinely sorry that this happened. There is still clearly a lot of work to do with automatic image labeling, and we're looking at how we can prevent these types of mistakes from happening in the future."

Chief architect of social at Google Yonatan Zunger tweeted, “Lots of work being done, and lots still to be done. We’re very much on it.”

Alcine replied that he understands how such issues happen, saying that the problem is more on why it happened.

USA Today reported that image recognition software is still relatively new although its use is quickly spreading. Google launched the Photos app at Google I/O in May 2015. The Verge showed how users’ images can be tagged and arranged automatically based on objects and landmarks in photos. For example, images of skyscrapers will all be placed in an album properly labeled skyscrapers. The tag feature will continue to learn as it acquires more data, improving the way it recognizes and groups objects. According to Zunger, Google had issues with facial recognition because in inadequate analysis of skin tones and lighting. He said that they used to have problems with people of all races being tagged as dogs.

Google tried to solve the algorithm problem but eventually eliminated the gorilla label completely. Zunger added that Google is currently working to make long term fixes that will address problematic labels and allow better recognition of dark-skinned faces.

Joelle Emerson, founder and CEO of strategy firm Paradigm, said that the recent incident should serve as a wake-up call for tech companies.

Emerson asked, “How much more evidence do we need that the lack of diversity in tech companies has a real, and sometimes very serious, impact on how products are designed and developed?"