Twitter offers bug bounty to spot AI bias so it can fix its algorithms

Twitter has a new way to rid itself of artificial intelligence bias: pay outsiders to help it find problems. On Friday, the short-message app maker detailed a new bounty competition that offers prizes of up to $3,500 for showing Twitter how its technology incorrectly handles photos. Earlier this year, Twitter confirmed a problem in its automatic photo cropping mechanism, concluding the software favored white people over Black people. The cropping mechanism, which Twitter calls its "saliency algorithm," is supposed to present the most important section of an image when you're scrolling through tweets. Twitter's approach to tackling algorithmic bias -- asking outside experts and observers to study its code and results -- innovates on bug bounties, which have historically been used for reporting security vulnerabilities.