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Google AI Technology

Google AI No Longer Uses Gender Binary Tags on Images of People (inputmag.com) 368

Google's image-labeling AI tool will no longer label pictures with gender tags like "man" and "woman." From a report: In the email, Google cites its ethical rules on AI as the basis for the change. This is a progressive move by Google -- and one that will hopefully set a precedent for the rest of the AI industry. Ethics aside, Google also says it's made this change because it isn't possible to infer gender from someone's appearance. Google is correct on that count. AI's tendency toward a gender binary might be helpful in blunt categorization, but there are also many gender identities that fall on the spectrum outside of "man" and "woman." Though Google doesn't go as far as saying so in its policies, removing the gender binary from its AI actively makes the software more inclusive of transgender and non-binary people. It's a move that the rest of the tech industry would do well to emulate.
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Google AI No Longer Uses Gender Binary Tags on Images of People

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  • Porn searching is now ruined.
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      Jack off to the tranny, bigot.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Gender identities that fall on the spectrum outside of "man" and "woman." are called Freaks.

        • by GrahamJ ( 241784 )

          Coward indeed.

          • Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20, 2020 @06:04PM (#59748298)

            Coward indeed.

            What is truly cowardly and damaging, is failing to identify gender dysphoria as the mental disorder that it is. With a suicide rate of 40% pre or post-op, we're certainly not doing them any favors by giving them awards instead of treating them. I don't support forcing all of society to bend over backwards for 0.5% of the human race either. Perhaps you can explain how that make sense when we certainly don't do that for any other mental disorder.

            • Re:Great... (Score:5, Interesting)

              by Shaitan ( 22585 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @06:46PM (#59748450)

              ^ This. The condition is actually a very serious mental illness. These people need professional care not for the entire world to pretend you can change a birth statistic with pills and cosmetic surgery.

              I actually talked a dear friend down from this cliff that his psychologist had talked him into. While offering assurance I'd support him whatever he did I made him understand that gender was nothing than a stat and that you couldn't really change it. And that the person he was on the inside was a perfectly valid kind of man to be and not a kind of woman simply because he had a lot more interests in common with most women than men. There are WASPs who love native, hispanic, french, or japanese cultures that doesn't magically transform them into someone who is native, hispanic, french, or japanese. Changing their clothes, skin coloring, facial features, etc also would not effect that change. It is also perfectly okay that elements of those cultures better reflect who that person is. Cultures, preferences, clothes, hobbies, interests, etc are all actually just superficial window dressing anyway.

            • Re:Great... (Score:5, Informative)

              by HannahBarbarian ( 318221 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @07:47PM (#59748690)

              What is truly cowardly and damaging, is failing to identify gender dysphoria as the mental disorder that it is. With a suicide rate of 40% pre or post-op, we're certainly not doing them any favors by giving them awards instead of treating them. I don't support forcing all of society to bend over backwards for 0.5% of the human race either. Perhaps you can explain how that make sense when we certainly don't do that for any other mental disorder.

              You can call it a mental disorder if you want to, but the real question is: What are we going to do about people with gender dysphoria?

              What is this "treatment" you speak of that we should be giving them? There's no magic pill to make gender dysphoria go away. Do you really think we can just talk to people and somehow convince them with our logic that "gender is just a stat and you can't really change it"? Should we try "praying the trans away"? Tell them they're going to Hell? What good do you think that would do?

              How about this? How about we just accept them for who they are? How about we let people live their lives they way that they want to? They're not hurting anyone else. What's the big deal?

              The suicide statistics you cite aren't because we are accepting transgendered people, it's because we don't accept them. Many studies have shown that when transgendered people are accepted their suicide rates and self harm incidents reduce. It's far better to live in a society that accepts you for what you are, than one that tells you something you know in your heart to be true is wrong.

              And seriously, is this really "society being forced to bend over backwards for them"? Just letting them be? Is using their preferred pronouns really that much of a chore for you? Many transgendered people today live with the constant threat of violence from bigots who don't believe they should be allowed to live as who they are. Just accepting them for who they are is hardly "giving them an award".

    • by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      Just search for 'it' instead.

    • Jerk off to that female penis, bigot!
  • Too bad (Score:5, Funny)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @04:51PM (#59747910)

    Just as I was about to tell Google I identify as 'na ); DROP TABLE Images".

  • Misleading (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rldp ( 6381096 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @04:53PM (#59747914)

    >> It's a move that the rest of the tech industry would do well to emulate.

    Why does the tech industry need to pander to an extremely small percentage of mentally ill people?

    • >> It's a move that the rest of the tech industry would do well to emulate.

      Why does the tech industry need to pander to an extremely small percentage of mentally ill people?

      It doesn't, and it won't. This is just Google slowing digging their own grave.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by SirAstral ( 1349985 )

        "It doesn't, and it won't."

        It does, and it will.

        History is full of the vocal Minorities getting all the play. Do you think MOST of the Germans were Nazi or that most of the Whites were slave owners? Most people are not actually willing to cause a mass of destruction. Many go along to avoid being signaled out by that vocal minority. All wars... caused by minority, all great issues... caused by minority numbers, almost every major problem is sourced to a small minority group that often paints the offendin

        • by geggam ( 777689 )

          The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

          Edmund Burke

        • Re:Misleading (Score:5, Interesting)

          by WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @06:15PM (#59748334)

          Do you think MOST of the Germans were Nazi

          YES I absolutely believe that. Anyone who has spent any time studying the history of Nazi Germany knows plurality of Germans absolutely loved Hitler with all of their hearts.

          The infamous 1934 referendum to make Hitler "fuhrer" was not even close and keep in mind it occurred **after** Hitler publically admitted to murder of several dozens of political rivals something like a month earlier.

          Most people are not actually willing to cause a mass of destruction.

          Yes they absolutely are.

          Many go along to avoid being signaled out by that vocal minority. All wars... caused by minority, all great issues... caused by minority numbers, almost every major problem is sourced to a small minority group that often paints the offending group as being bigger than it really is.

          This is delusional. 3/4's of the U.S. population supported the Iraq war. There are no shortage of people who want to believe it was all Hitler all just these outliers rather than face up to reality.

          The silent majority is...

          A figment of your imagination.

          • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

            by SirAstral ( 1349985 )

            If what you say is true then the entire Nation of Germany should have been burned off the face of the Planet. If what you say is true then all of Islam should be burned off the face of the Planet. If what you say is True all Republicans, Democrats, Atheists, Christians, Homosexuals, Straights.... well lets just stop there.

            If what you said is true then humanity itself needs to be wiped out... but I always like to say... if you need to murder someone... start with yourself!

            • "Burning them off the face of hte planet" is where such genocides start and are fostered.

          • A plurality is, by definition, not "most". It is less than half. Which accurately describes German support for Hitler, who despite using the SA to suppress opposition turnout, only got 43.9% of the votes in the last election before he seized total power. Which was the highest portion of the vote the Nazis ever got.

            The referendum to affirm his position as Chancellor and President was for show. He had already taken over, and violently rigged the referendum. Opposition parties were already illegal, SA t

    • I don't know. I think they just gave up on trying to classify Pat, so they made up this excuse.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by slaker ( 53818 )

      1. Because they're still valid as human beings.
      2. Even if you're just being a dick about non-passing transpeople, there are other categories of exceptions. I'm a Klinefelter's person, mildly intersexed. I present as male and identify as male but I can understand why some people with the same physical traits as mine might choose not to do so. Klinefelter's, while not common, isn't as rare as one might think. About 1 in 1000 humans are born with it.
      3. Some people reject their gender or seek to nullify it. It

      • Re:Misleading (Score:4, Insightful)

        by SirAstral ( 1349985 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @05:20PM (#59748064)

        Strawmand bullshit alert!!!

        "1. Because they're still valid as human beings."

        yea.. that is totally what people meant when they disagree with someone... that they are no longer valid humans... O wait... that is what YOU mean when you disagree with someone... that is that anyone you disagree with is an invalid human. Nice Freudian slip there knucklehead!

        " It's not your place to judge"

        But it is yours huh? If people are not allowed to judge them, then you are not allowed to judge in response either. That just makes you a dumb fucking hypocrite.

        My position is this. If we must conform to non-Binary pronouns then you need to refer to me by my preferred pronoun of SuGen.

        It stands for Superior Gender. If you get to name yourself... we ALL GET TO DO IT! And you damn fucking sure better put your filthy money where you mouth is and honor the very fucking bullshit you bring!

        Regarding your issue. I can only say that it sucks you got the hand you were dealt, but you also do not get to play that hand to abuse others for holding the identities they are accustomed too. I say the same to them when they try to disparage others that have a difference as well. I notice that a lot of people have a problem with getting along with each other... even those complaining about people not getting along, but this issue is something else entirely. The idea that people get to tell me that I am not allowed to have my own opinions or ideas unless it passes their approval or standards... even when my ideas are based in Scientific Facts.

        • Nobody says you have to address people as they like.

          Purely objectively speaking it is usually douchebags that don't though.

          • Re:Misleading (Score:4, Informative)

            by SirAstral ( 1349985 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @06:28PM (#59748392)

            lol, yes, yes there are people saying that.

            https://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/... [www.cbc.ca]

            There is even a law recently created in Canada for just exactly this for example. Sure something like it will be much harder to pass in the USA but may Colleges and States are looking at doing the same in some form or fashion. It's no secret either.

            There are actual people wanting criminal prosecution against people that will not "literally" talk and dance however the gender bigots demand.

            That's right... the people calling themselves "gender rights advocates" are actually "gender bigots". They want all their demands to be fulfilled under the literal threat of law.

            Sadly, I also warned all the people that bullied and abused people with gender dysphoria or gender identity issues that there was going to be a backlash. That pendulum comes swinging back and people just never seem to understand that. If the "gender bigots" on both sides keep this up, it going to create a much bigger problem that will last for a long time.

            There will be no peace for anyone.

          • by Shaitan ( 22585 )

            Are you a douchebag then because I notice you didn't call the GP SuGen as requested.

        • by GrahamJ ( 241784 )

          "SuGen" isn't a pronoun.

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by lars5 ( 69333 )

            Neither is "zim" nor "zer," but people sure as fuck are forcing others to use them.

            Sorry, "zem."

            • Have you ever thought that those made up pronouns could be a tool to generate outrage that when a man who has grown long hair and castrated himself says he would like to be referred to as she, you accept thinking "well at least it's not one of those made up pronouns!"

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Can you not see the difference between say a non-binary person asking you to refer to them with gender neutral pronouns and you deliberately being a dick?

          No one is suggesting that arbitrary pronouns are mandatory... Will no one except you. THAT'S a straw man.

      • Calling or not calling someone by a specific signifier doesn't remove their humanity.

        But let me ask this. What would you call a person that produces sperm, and then a person that produces eggs?

        • Re:Misleading (Score:5, Interesting)

          by slaker ( 53818 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @05:43PM (#59748192)

          I'd call that person what they wish to be called as best I am able. The name or title they choose to give is irrelevant and doesn't impact my life, and respecting their identity creates the least friction.

          In real life, I work with someone who wants to be called Doctor. They aren't an MD, but they have a PhD in a social science in a field unrelated to the work they're doing now. I still call that person doctor. It's not worth arguing with him about it.

          • Re:Misleading (Score:5, Informative)

            by Stolovaya ( 1019922 ) <skingiii@gmEINST ... minus physicist> on Thursday February 20, 2020 @05:49PM (#59748236)

            That's not the way things work. That's not the way life or biology works. We're mammals. A male produces sperm, and a female produces eggs. Sure, I can call the sky green when it's actually blue. I'd be wrong, and would just be confusing people, or I wouldn't be taken seriously. No humanity is removed in these facts.

      • Re:Misleading (Score:4, Insightful)

        by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @06:44PM (#59748446)

        "1. Because they're still valid as human beings."

        Unless/until one says they identify as non-human? Then we can't tag humans in photos either? Someone with a pig-heart transplant declares he's interspecies (and maybe he's not wrong) and now image tagging algorithms can't tag any of the other billions of humans in billions of photos as having human beings in them, because hey, you can't tell which of them don't identify as 'human' by looking?

        "2. Even if you're just being a dick about non-passing transpeople, there are other categories of exceptions"

        No question. I fully accept that gender is a complicated subject both biologically, and psychologically. However, gender is a useful tag. If I want find search my library for a picture of "3 men by an apple tree" I don't want my search of my photo library to fail because the image classifier pretends that it can't figure out which people are men vs women with very high reliability.

        "3. Some people reject their gender or seek to nullify it. It's not your place to judge their reasons for doing this, even if they are related to dysmorphia or just a political or social statement.

        In general I agree with you. But there are limits. What if they are just wrong or confused or mistaken? If a toddler is confused and says he's a girl, does the rest of the world have to pretend he's a girl now? What if he says he's a bird? What if he calls a cow a horse? Are we allowed to correct him or does he just get to assign whatever labels he wants to things, and its up to us to call cows horses and agree he's a bird when having a conversation with him? What if its not a toddler and its a mature adult calling cows horses to make a political or social statement or because he's badly concussed or brain damaged?

        In other words, my gender: attack helicopter. my preferred salutation : Lord Commander. pronouns: shazbot (all of them). and I have decided the color of the daylight sky is "green" to make a political or social statement. Don't judge me.... er... Shazbot have decided the color of the daylight sky is "green" to make a political statement. Don't judge shazbot.

        That is no less valid, particularly since it falls within your protected criteria. Shazbot'm doing it to make a political statement. You are absolutely entitled to form an opinion about whether or not you think shazbot'm is just being an asshole here.

        For my part, I accept that some people reject or nullify gender for legitimate reasons, but I also maintain that some people are just being difficult, and others are sick and need therapy. When a man decides his penis isn't part of him, doctors must call him trans and help him remove it... same man decides his arms and legs aren't part of him doctors treat him for mental illness -- no one's helping him take his limbs off. Something is wrong there. Gender is complicated, I get that. But I think i do have the right, even a moral imperative to form opinions on a case by case basis, rather than to simply accept whatever anyone else says as a reality that must automatically be respected unchallenged; and to accommodate their world view and to stop identifying horses as horses in pictures because they disagree with that labeling...

    • Maybe because one of these so-called mentally ill people LITERALLY WROTE THE BOOK on Very Large Scale Integration circuit design. Are you writing your post on something faster than a couple of MHz? Then be grateful to a trans woman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
    • Being sensitive to people with dysphoria or with actual genetic variances outside of the normal chromosome pairs is a good surface story.

      I'd be more likely to guess that they're doing it so they don't get sued for defamation by some random person who gets misclassified.

      • I'm sure most people have been wrong at least once in their lives about whether a person was male or female (in the "traditional" sense).
        Likewise, an AI determining gender isn't really a true/false determination under the covers - it's a percentage confidence either way.
        Besides, if I'm looking for a picture of a man or a woman, do I really care what *they* call themselves? I could be attracted to a picture of a woman even if she thinks she's a man. Or what if someone mugs me for my wallet and identify the

    • by Z80a ( 971949 )

      Those people you actually refer for are not mentally ill, they just got their head full of post modernism and "desconstructionism", and well want to destroy gender because "it's a social construct".
      They just mix in the trans movement to use people with actual problems as meat shields so they can do all their 151 gender shit with impunity.

    • We either cater to the religious nutjobs and their invisible man fixation, or to mentally ill people who believe weird things. Either way, fantasy seems to be winning over reality.

  • Christ (Score:5, Interesting)

    by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @04:53PM (#59747916) Homepage

    ...but there are also many gender identities that fall on the spectrum outside of "man" and "woman."...

    No there aren't. There's possibly a third gender ( debatable, but someone born with both could be considered intersex ), but that's it. There is no basis for the "many genders" nonsense other than "feelings".

    Given that the skull and skeletal-muscular structure of the body is demonstrably different between men and women, I'm trying to figure out precisely what this change will mean to it's AI product.

    • ...but there are also many gender identities that fall on the spectrum outside of "man" and "woman."...

      No there aren't. There's possibly a third gender ( debatable, but someone born with both could be considered intersex ), but that's it. There is no basis for the "many genders" nonsense other than "feelings".

      Given that the skull and skeletal-muscular structure of the body is demonstrably different between men and women, I'm trying to figure out precisely what this change will mean to it's AI product.

      It will make arrests based on footage from AI cameras much more interesting.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by enigma32 ( 128601 )

      You're conflating sex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex) and gender (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender).

      I agree that this does seem a bit silly, though. People that care what others think about their gender identity apparently have nothing more important to worry about in life.

      It saddens me that a leader in AI research has decided that the same type of basic assumptions that most people in the world make by looking at someone are invalid because those assumptions hurt the fragile emotions of a very smal

      • leader in AI research has decided that the same type of basic assumptions that most people in the world make by looking at someone

        They also don't have humans employed roaming down the street pointing and saying "That's a man!" Who wants to get sued for automatic classification being wrong?

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by grasshoppa ( 657393 )

        You're conflating sex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex) and gender (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender).

        I'm really not. Gender, as defined here, are nothing more than different behaviors which we're inappropriately using to differentiate from sex.

        The truth of the matter is that people behave differently, we're all different. Yet for some reason, those differences can't just be normal human variation in behavior, but must be because there are hundreds of different genders!

        It's a laughably stupid, "Emperor has no cloths" kind of moment we'll look back on and shake our heads.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          The truth of the matter is that people behave differently, we're all different. Yet for some reason, those differences can't just be normal human variation in behavior,

          The truth of the matter is that people behave differently, we're all different. Yet for some reason those differences are shoehorned into only of of two "genders" and can't just be an infinite spectrum human variation. And worse, those people most committed to shoehorning vast variations into just two classifications, object when you suggest that maybe the physical presentation of genitalia might not be the best way to sort this diversity of humanity into two arbitrary classifications.

      • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        because those assumptions hurt the fragile emotions of a very small, and very vocal, minority

        You might see it that way when you don't care about that particular issue, but when a bot classifies you as "a snippy neck-beard with no people skills", you might take umbrage.

        • I don't really care how it classifies me.

          People [and computers, these days] make assumptions every day. Almost none of them matter to my life. But that's because I know myself well enough that I don't feel the need to force my self-image down other people's throats.

          Furthermore, we shouldn't be placing "AIs" into positions where their classifications of people matter in any truly significant way. It makes this whole problem (and untold others) a non-issue.

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        same type of basic assumptions that most people in the world make by looking at someone

        While you can tell a good majority of people apart as male or female by appearance alone, there are plenty of people where it's not so exact. I've seen plenty of people who I couldn't definitely assign a sex to - they looked male, but had a female voice and mannerisms.

        And I'm not even talking about gender fluidity - it's just some people have appearances that are ambiguous at best. I'm sure you know plenty of men who hav

      • Re:Christ (Score:5, Informative)

        by Strill ( 6019874 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @06:10PM (#59748314)

        That definition of "gender" was made up by researcher John Money (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Money), who believed that behavior associated with sex was purely learned, and not inherent. His hypothesis was proven false, and and his research was a spectacular failure that ruined the life of a boy named David Reimer, and led to his suicide. In other words, your concept of "gender" is pure quackery.

      • Given that the skull and skeletal-muscular structure of the body is demonstrably different between men and women, I'm trying to figure out precisely what this change will mean to it's AI product.

        You're conflating sex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex) and gender (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender).

        So if Google renamed the field from "gender" to "sex" then "male" and "female" would be OK?

        Or are these two terms so politicized that we need a new term, something like "genetic"? Because the reality is a label based on appearance that is correct 999 out of 1,000 times does have some value.

      • You're conflating sex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex) and gender (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender).

        Or just using terms that were interchangeable for hundreds of years. Reality didn't change, people just redefined the terms to suit their agendas. Then they get mad that others don't play along with their fantasy. It will be interesting to find out which chemicals in the environment caused this jump in birth defects. The number of these folks has increased far more than 'it being more accepted' would suggest. Much like how autism has increased far more than just 'better diagnostics' would explain.

    • ...but there are also many gender identities that fall on the spectrum outside of "man" and "woman."...

      No there aren't. There's possibly a third gender ( debatable, but someone born with both could be considered intersex ), but that's it. There is no basis for the "many genders" nonsense other than "feelings".

      Given that the skull and skeletal-muscular structure of the body is demonstrably different between men and women, I'm trying to figure out precisely what this change will mean to it's AI product.

      It just means it will function about as well as most of their other products that they leave in beta for years and then cancel.

    • Given that the skull and skeletal-muscular structure of the body is demonstrably different between men and women, I'm trying to figure out precisely what this change will mean to it's AI product..

      Maybe the AI really does have problems with feminine looking men and masculine looking women........

    • by flatt ( 513465 )

      I'm trying to figure out precisely what this change will mean to it's AI product.

      It cannot be understated that they've declared objective reality incompatible with their product. Proceed accordingly.

    • by Strill ( 6019874 )

      If you look at the lists of these thousands of extra genders, it becomes obvious that this is confused adolescents who are engaging in self-discovery. In other words, these "genders" are just descriptions of personality. Take "batgender" [mogaipedia.org], for example. This is just someone who's night owl, and thinks that somehow qualifies as a gender. Or take "Chaosgender" [mogaipedia.org]. This is someone who's impulsive or likes making a fool of themselves. Hell, apparently Autism [wikia.org] is a gender too.

      There is absolutely no scientific basis

    • No there aren't.

      Yes, there are. Gender is anything but simple.

      Even if you look purely at a "simplistic" definition of gender to be based on biological chromosome pairing (and ignore other genetalia-affecting conditions) there are at least 14 very real and distinct genetic conditions that you are waving away as "debatable" and "intersex":

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      And that doesn't even begin to touch on the sociological discussion or complications of whether to and how to classify people who wish to id

    • Google's AI will possibly keep using the standard classification for sex, but they will slowly train it to also determine your personality traits (such as gender identification) from pictures, just to add to the creep factor. And they brand it as "gender non-binary" to play the woke card and appear hip.
  • by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @04:57PM (#59747950)

    it isn't possible to infer gender from someone's appearance.

    For current AI, it's not possible to reliably infer *anything* from the inputs. Are we going to kill *all* classifiers, then?

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      We should kill the ones that are based on faulty measurements. It's like trying to determine the length of a bit of string by looking at what colour it is. You can build an AI that tries to do it but it's never going to work reliably.

  • by Thing 1 ( 178996 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @04:58PM (#59747960) Journal

    "Imagine there's no people."

    Well, that's something [[[they're]]] trying to bring about! Georgia Guidestones; "timeline 2"; etc.

    I am a man. I have X and Y chromosomes. A woman has two X chromosomes.

    There are some mutants which happen so rarely they can be one-off cases.

    There are also those who cut themselves and take pills, none of which behavior changes their genetics.

    Google is doing it wrong, but why be surprised.

    • There are some mutants which happen so rarely they can be one-off cases.

      In a planet with 7 billion people, you're still writing off at least several million people.

  • Google also says it’s made this change because it isn’t possible to infer gender from someone’s appearance.

    Yet humans do it correctly every day for greater than 90% of the population. And computers have done it correctly for several years for greater than 75% of the population.

    • Why just yesterday I was trawling Facebook for people I don't know and commenting on their photos "Man!" and "Woman!"

  • They'll find that AI will keep learning to categorize people into two genders, and that they'll have to manually force it to stop or hide the results. Just like some parents try to do to their children.

    This gives a competitive edge to other AI organizations, though..
  • Google Image Search "picture of a man"/"pictures of a woman" should now return :

    Your search - pictures of a man - did not match any image results.
    Or
    Your search - pictures of a woman - did not match any image results.

    I guess.

  • The point in categorizing objects is not at the behest of the items being categorized, but for some larger scope. If I wished to categorize, for business purposes, the number of males verses females that enter my establishment, to better optimize my advertising practices, then it is a totally relevant and morally acceptable use to have some AI do its best to visually categorize by gender. It is irrelevant to take into consideration the opinions of the individuals and what their preferred categorization is

  • So we wonâ(TM)t be able to use their AI to search for a male (or female) person in a particular setting or situation. Seems artificially unintelligent to do something like that.
  • Wrong (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NaCh0 ( 6124 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @05:12PM (#59748022) Homepage

    AI inaccuracy is not the problem at all.

    The problem is that image recognition has gotten TOO GOOD at identifying men and women.

    The computer has no problem pointing out a dude in a dress. It's humans who want to pretend it's something that it's not.

  • Distinction is merely nothing that men and women (and whatever other categories you wish to put people into) are different. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

    Discrimination is assuming certain traits in an individual based upon which category they fall into. Discrimination is generally wrong (although there are cases where it's necessary to allow us to function in a timely manner.) because that assumption can be and often is incorrect for particular individuals, even if it's usually true for
  • Google's very first response is:

    Dictionary
    sexual dimorphism
    noun ZOOLOGY
    distinct difference in size or appearance between the sexes of an animal in addition to difference between the sexual organs themselves.

  • We can stop Google from tracking us alltogether!

  • by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @05:32PM (#59748124) Homepage

    We've also had trouble with AI software performing poorly on dark-skin. So this might not be entirely because of political correctness.

    In western culture if a man is mistaken for a woman he may be insulted. Same thing if someone's age is incorrect. And facial AI has trouble with darker skin too. So if the software was not super great at identifying gender, then it might have been unintentionally insulting people. Remember the media outrage when Google's AI identified some girl as a gorilla?

    Ethics aside, Google also says it’s made this change because it isn’t possible to infer gender from someone’s appearance.

    It's definitely a gray area. Humans have trouble with this too, especially from behind or from just a face. And we get the benefit of a 3D representation usually. Children have trouble determining gender. It is difficult even on some adults. Usually we get to see the whole body, mannerisms, voice - but even that isn't a guarantee. So we should not be surprised that a facial recognition AI has trouble with this.

    • While I agree with your points, do you GENUINELY believe that Google made this change out a realistic assessment of it's capabilities...or because they're deeply invested in being the woke-est company in the land?

    • > It's definitely a gray area. Humans have trouble with this too, especially from behind or from just a face. And we get the benefit of a 3D representation usually. Children have trouble determining gender. It is difficult even on some adults. Usually we get to see the whole body, mannerisms, voice - but even that isn't a guarantee. So we should not be surprised that a facial recognition AI has trouble with this.

      What person has problem determining gender "from just a face", or from behind ?

      1. I *NE
  • by GrahamJ ( 241784 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @05:34PM (#59748134)

    Just change the strings to "Person with penis" and "Person without penis".

    Problem solved.

  • by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Thursday February 20, 2020 @05:47PM (#59748224)
    Is this an attempt to develop a sense of humor in AI?
  • You can repeat nonsense all you like, but repeating it won't make it true.

    A tiny minority of people have bona fide gender identity issues. Most of that minority are happy to settle down as a man or a woman and get on with their life. Only a tiny minority of that tiny minority have any issues beyond that.

    The transtrenders Google are pandering to don't need new genders. They just need their asses kicked.

    ...laura (who has some experience in these matters)

  • If you look at the lists of these thousands of extra genders, it becomes obvious that this is confused adolescents who are engaging in self-discovery. In other words, these "genders" are just descriptions of personality. Take "batgender" [mogaipedia.org], for example. This is just someone who's night owl, and thinks that somehow qualifies as a gender. Or take "Chaosgender" [mogaipedia.org]. This is someone who's impulsive or likes making a fool of themselves. Hell, apparently Autism [wikia.org] is a gender

  • Just to get this out of the way, the Bible bumpers are going to throw their usual fits over this, and try to bully the US government into forcing Google to reinstate the tags.

    Because in there mind the separation of church and State (I refuse to capitalize "church" here) was a Satanic plot by Madelyn 'O Hare (as opposed to the reality of the Founding Fathers instating that separation), and their "God" is the right one, because their book says so, and the people who wrote it says they saw God. Hard e

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