{"id":55980,"date":"2020-07-29T14:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icrowdnewswire.com\/?p=2679856"},"modified":"2020-07-29T14:18:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T14:18:00","slug":"service-that-uses-ai-to-identify-gender-based-on-names-looks-incredibly-biased","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ipsnews.net\/business\/2020\/07\/29\/service-that-uses-ai-to-identify-gender-based-on-names-looks-incredibly-biased\/","title":{"rendered":"Service that uses AI to identify gender based on names looks incredibly biased"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n
<\/span>Image: Genderify<\/small><\/p>\n

Some tech companies make a splash when they launch, others seem to bellyflop.<\/p>\n

Genderify, a new service that promises to identify someone’s gender by analyzing their name, email address, or username with the help AI, looks firmly to be in the latter camp. The company launched on Product Hunt last week, but has picked up a lot of attention on social media recently as users discovered biases and inaccuracies in its algorithms.<\/p>\n

Type the name “Meghan Smith” into Genderify, for example, and the service offers the assessment: “Male: 39.60%, Female: 60.40%.” Change that name to “Dr. Meghan Smith,” however, and the assessment changes to: “Male: 75.90%, Female: 24.10%.” Other names prefixed with “Dr” produce similar results, and other inputs seem to skew consistently male. “Test@test.com” is said to be 96.90 percent male, for example, while “Mrs Joan smith” is 94.10 percent male.<\/p>\n

The outcry seems to have been so great that, at the time of writing, the service’s website, Genderify.com, has been taken offline and its free API is no longer accessible.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

AI bias in action: https:\/\/t.co\/vRM53tEUMs pic.twitter.com\/YgLON4vpT8<\/p>\n

— michael (@mpchlets) July 28, 2020<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

These sorts of biases regularly appear in machine learning systems, but the thoughtlessness of Genderify seems to have surprised many experts in the field. The response from Meredith Whittaker, co-founder of the AI Now Institute, which studies the impact of AI on society, was somewhat typical. “Are we being trolled?” she asked. “Is this a psyop meant to distract the tech+justice world? Is it cringey tech April fool’s day already?”<\/p>\n

\n