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Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

time.com

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Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#111

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

frahs wrote: post #79
ryanmonroe wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think Google is responsible in 2018, now that they offer extremely tailored results. Duckduckgo, maybe not. But if Google is going to say "we're going to show you listings for restaurants in SF in your simple 'restaurants' search because we know you live in SF," I think they should also say "we're going to show you results for LGBT resources when you search for 'gay men' because nothing about your query indicates…

Well, it's like the restaurant example. If I search for "restaurants", it shouldn't give me restaurants in Shanghai because that's the city with the largest population. It should give me Northern California, since that's where I live and Google knows that. Similarly, Google might reasonably infer that if someone is searching for their own race, sexuality, or religion, they're probably more interested in information o…

How would google infer that you’re looking for information about your own race and gender?

Ideally it should know nothing about me!

Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#112

Post by politician »

jacquesm wrote: post #92
politician wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That a query for an innocent term... I take strong issue with the "obvious" conclusion that Google knows which terms are innocent. Disclaimer: In this specific case, I agree with you that "black girls" has an innocent connotation and am not suggesting otherwise. Please do not misinterpret my thoughts below. Shall we require Google to be ever vigilant about the meaning of words in use at various times by the various…

> Shall we require Google to be ever vigilant about the meaning of words in use at various times by the various communities of the world, and to entrust them with the responsibility for determining the innocence or guiltiness of words or phrases for all mankind? Google aims to 'organize the worlds information', how it does that concerns all of us so yes, this makes them responsible with determining whether a certain…

You're right! I reread the article, and the author aligns ideologically with most of the commenters in this thread, including myself.

Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#113

Post by [deleted] »

jacquesm wrote: post #104
themgt wrote: post #42

A Google search for "American inventors": https://i.imgur.com/qw5kfQp.png A Google search for "American women scientists": https://i.imgur.com/o6mxG56.png Can the media stop doing this thing where they p-hack reality for proof of racist/sexist conspiracies?

You are missing the point: there is no reason why an innocent query such as 'black girls' should bring up a bunch of porn. And Google seems to agree with this because they have since tweaked things so that that no longer happens.

[deleted]

Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#114

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

wutbrodo wrote: post #94
ryanmonroe wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think Google is responsible in 2018, now that they offer extremely tailored results. Duckduckgo, maybe not. But if Google is going to say "we're going to show you listings for restaurants in SF in your simple 'restaurants' search because we know you live in SF," I think they should also say "we're going to show you results for LGBT resources when you search for 'gay men' because nothing about your query indicates…

> This seems like a bad idea to me, especially in the context of a discussion about how to reduce the political/social influence of Google. It seems to me that there's an enormous contingent of people who wants to yell about the influence of Google and Facebook and then yell even louder about how they're not actively intervening to skew content towards their political preferences (ie increase their influence massivel…

>It seems to me that there's an enormous contingent of people who wants to yell about the influence of Google and Facebook and then yell even louder about how they're not actively intervening to skew content towards their political preferences (ie increase their influence massively). This split-personality approach is baffling to me.

It's pretty straightforward to understand the view.

1. It would be better if Google and Facebook didn't even have the power to skew content.

2. Since they do have that power and seem determined to use it they should be judged on their choice to use (or not use in this case) and implementation of content skewing.

Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#115

Post by Hyva »

mlazos wrote: post #32

I’m always amazed how often the “surprise” that digital technology is in fact not unbiased and robotic in nature keeps getting written about. Algorithms that optimize for click through rate for ads and search relevancy will inevitably be a reflection of ourselves and all of the shitty things various people believe. >> What we know about Google’s responses to racial stereotyping in its products is that it typically de…

> I’m always amazed how often the “surprise” that digital technology is in fact not unbiased and robotic in nature keeps getting written about. Algorithms that optimize for click through rate for ads and search relevancy will inevitably be a reflection of ourselves and all of the shitty things various people believe.

What you just observed and described is that technology _is_ unbiased and robotic. The bias is in the humans. You can't remove it with a software bandage; the software is working as intended.

Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#116

Post by grzm »

komali2 wrote: post #9

> “p-ssy,” as a noun You are allowed to say fuck on the internet. Also, does it really count if you skip out one letter? I never understood this. You're still all but saying the word. Nobody is being protected here lol. A kid can cycle through the five vowels in about half a second to figure out what the word is, and one of them is also kinda a swear - pissy. EDIT: "n 2012, I wrote an article for Bitch Magazine" now…

Different publications have different style books. This is Time, which, given it's history as a mainstream magazine, likely has a more conservative editorial style than more recent, online-only publications.

Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#117

Post by jacobreg »

narrator wrote: post #83
ryanmonroe wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think Google is responsible in 2018, now that they offer extremely tailored results. Duckduckgo, maybe not. But if Google is going to say "we're going to show you listings for restaurants in SF in your simple 'restaurants' search because we know you live in SF," I think they should also say "we're going to show you results for LGBT resources when you search for 'gay men' because nothing about your query indicates…

Political correctness and affirmative action are based on the idea that pretending the world is an ideal version of itself will eventually make it that way. In reality though, the world is a complex place and the ideal pretend version can only be implemented in a carefully controlled environment such as a movie, a theatrical presentation, a video game or a situation where all participants agree to or are pressured in…

>Political correctness and affirmative action are based on the idea that pretending the world is an ideal version of itself will eventually make it that way.

That is the opposite of how it works. Affirmative action is accepting that the world has bias against certain groups, and attempting to take that into account. Political correctness is about realizing that certain groups have been marginalized or traumatized and some words perpetuate that. In a perfect world neither are necessary.

Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#118

Post by ucaetano »

pishpash wrote: post #72
Retric wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can't change math because people don't like the results. They can stop relying on algorithms because the underlying data reflects social bias, or use them and reflect society. But, they are always going to upset some group some of the time because social norms are not consistent across society. IMO, attacking Google on this is pointless, deal with the actual problem.

Never asked to change math or stop relying on algorithms. If you think those are the only solutions you're not thinking hard enough. Google is part of the problem, dealing with the problem involves Google solving its part of the problem.

> If you think those are the only solutions you're not thinking hard enough.

Yeah, great contribution right there! If we haven't cured cancer is because we aren't thinking hard enough!

Re: Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls

#120

Post by pnloyd »

ryanmonroe wrote: post #65
komali2 wrote: post #14

I like the underlying question that the author brings up - what's google algorithm, and who's responsible for it? In the old days it was "most linked page with those keywords," right? So if you searched "gay man" and got a bunch of gay porn, is it necessarily google's fault that the internet is more gay porn that it is resources for gay men to discuss LGBT issues? Is it google's fault that news agencies more typicall…

>I think Google is responsible in 2018, now that they offer extremely tailored results. Duckduckgo, maybe not. But if Google is going to say "we're going to show you listings for restaurants in SF in your simple 'restaurants' search because we know you live in SF," I think they should also say "we're going to show you results for LGBT resources when you search for 'gay men' because nothing about your query indicates…

I don't think it's right that because there's some highly backlinked content with with some keywords, that you should assume that's what people are looking for when they search those keywords.

Shouldn't helping connect poeple with what they're looking for be the bottom line? Even if you have to manipulate your algorimths natural results to do so.

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