Is AI racist? Why more diversity is needed in the field of data science

If someone were to describe a person of colour as an animal, their comments would be rightly called out as racist. When artificial intelligence does the same thing, however, the creators of that AI are careful to avoid using the "r" word. Earlier this month, a video on Facebook featuring a number of black men ended with a prompt asking the viewer if they wanted to "keep seeing videos about Primates". Facebook's subsequent apology described the caption as an "error" which was "unacceptable". An ever-growing catalogue of algorithmic bias against people of colour is referred to by the offending companies using increasingly familiar language: "problematic", "unfair", a "glitch" or an "oversight".