Racist Facial Recognition Software 49
An anonymous reader writes "A black man found that his HP facial-tracking recognition software wouldn't work. Then he discovered it worked fine for a white co-worker. From the article: 'HP's Tony Welch thanked Desi and Wanda, the video's creators, and promised that he and the team at HP were looking into why the camera was behaving the way it was. "The technology we use is built on standard algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose," he said. "We believe that the camera might have difficulty 'seeing' contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting."'"
Oh, please (Score:3, Insightful)
SOMEBODY developed this facial tracking software, and HP vetted it for installation on thousands or millions of computers.
Either this problem will come as a complete surprise to them, or they knew about it and released it anyway. Both alternatives are pretty upsetting.
Because either there were no test cases involving black people -- for an algorithm that depends on skin contrast, you'd think this would be a no-brainer -- or they knew there was a problem, but never expected black people to buy it.