BUNCH O’ LADS Google has been criticised for using some controversial tactics in the quest to teach its neural networks how to recognise faces.
With less than two weeks to go until the Pixel 4 line of smartphones is released, which are expected to use facial recognition as its primary lock/unlock mechanism, it now seems that if you get mistaken for a panhandler, there may be a good reason.
It was no secret that Google had sent out one of its crack street teams to wave $5 bills at people in return for their face, but it now seems that they may have been a bit unscrupulous in their targeting.
The New York Daily News reports that some of the harvesting locations could prove a bit shifty, with Google targeting the homeless and poor students.
However, perhaps the most intriguing is the report that the temp team were seen on the after-show circuit at the recent BET Awards in LA. BET is a channel primarily aimed at the black community, and it seems that some bright spark realised that it would be a good place to get some more ethnic faces for the database.
One of the big concerns with facial recognition so far has been the fact that systems often struggle with skin colour. Add to that the racial bias that could be subconsciously present biases introduced into the system and its easy to see why some facial recognition has a real problem with anyone who isn’t caucasian.
The report suggests that the contractors, Randstad, told the team to deliberately seek out black faces and if necessary lie about the true nature of what they were up to, and what data was being taken.
Some were told to “play with the phone” and “get a gift card”, without being told why. Others weren’t told they were being recorded, on the instructions if the supervisor. If someone noticed the recording icon on the screen, staff were told to say it wasn’t really recording.
Staff were trained in using language to distract from what was going on. Phrases like “mini-game” and “selfie” were used to reframe the narrative of what was happening.
Randstad apparently told the street team that they could consider themselves as “full-time Google hires” if they met daily targets, something that they had no right to offer.
Google has said it is investigating the claims, explaining: “We’re taking these claims seriously and investigating them. The allegations regarding truthfulness and consent are in violation of our requirements for volunteer research studies and the training that we provided,” ยต