Artificial intelligence and racism

Sydell calls upon Latanya Sweeney's 2013 study of Google AdWords buys made by companies providing criminal-background-check services. Sweeney's findings showed that when somebody Googled a traditionally "black-sounding" name, such as DeShawn, Darnell or Jermaine, for example, the ad results returned were indicative of arrests at a significantly higher rate than if the name queried was a traditionally "white-sounding" name, such as Geoffrey, Jill or Emma. Important to note is that the algorithm doesn't actually look at arrest rates. Even if the ad indicates that somebody may have been arrested, it's entirely possible that nobody with that name exists in the background-check company's database at all. Professor Sweeney found this out firsthand when she Googled her own name.