BiasMedium
Apparent Failure to Accurately Label Primates in Image Recognition Software Due to Alleged Fear of Racial Bias
- Occurred
- May 22, 2023
- Published
- May 22, 2023
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Eight years after Google Photos mislabeled images of Black individuals as "gorillas," image recognition software by Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft still shows signs of either avoiding or inaccurately categorizing primates. Tests reveal that Google and Apple Photos refrain from labeling primates altogether, possibly to avoid the risk of perpetuating racial stereotypes. Microsoft OneDrive fails to identify any animals, while Amazon Photos overgeneralizes in its labeling.
Developers
- Apple
- Amazon
- Microsoft
Deployers
- Apple
- Amazon
- Microsoft
Harmed parties
- Consumers relying on accurate image categorization
- Minority groups
Tags
- Racial bias
- Image recognition
- Google Photos
- Apple Photos
- Amazon Photos
- Microsoft OneDrive
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: AI image recognition systems exhibit racial bias by mislabeling or avoiding primate categories to prevent stereotyping.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8