…and as soon as they could be heard behind the curtain, the conversations ended, the note sheets rustled briefly once more, and after some clearing of throats behind held-out hands, it became quiet. The sound of a cello broke the … Continue reading In the beginning there were steps…
Let’s talk about why we make fun of what teenage girls like. You may have seen this video about an obscure sport called Hobby Horsing, in which young female athletes use a hobby horse in various competitions, and have to … Continue reading Why do we make fun of things teenage girls love?
Some of you may have seen those videos with TikTokers and livestreamers sitting on sidewalks entertaining their audience. And it’s easy to chuckle about it at first. But let’s look at the phenomenon from another angle. Naomi Wu, a Chinese … Continue reading The life of Chinese TikTokers and livestreamers
The decision of the Ravensburger publishing house not to publish several children’s books accompanying the film “The Young Chief Winnetou” is causing some uproar. The reason is said to be the racist, romanticizing and stereotyping portrayal of Indians and the … Continue reading Winnetou: No Cancel Culture, but Respect at Last
The fact that we are evaluated and judged for a wide variety of life situations is nothing new. School grades, credit score for loans and also the Safety Score for driving a Tesla are familiar and new examples of how … Continue reading The Problem With An AI-based Overdose Risk Score For Pain Medications.
Data bias caused by poorly curated data is increasingly emerging as an important issue in the development of artificial intelligence. To this end, it is important to know that today’s AI is fed millions and millions of data sets through machine learning. Where this data comes from, and who selects and compiles it, is critical. If such a data set, which is supposed to recognize faces, has predominantly faces with light skin color or more men than women, then such faces are recognized well, but the AI then makes more errors with women or dark-skinned people, or even in combination with the face recognition of dark-skinned women.
While this may not be so tragic in the case of facial recognition, in other systems it can be a matter of life and death, imprisonment or freedom, or the granting or denial of credit. Another pitfall is that human stereotypes are embedded and deepened in the system. One such case was discovered by Anna Kholina, a Russian living in Helsinki. She had Google Translate, an AI-based online translation software, translate some sentences from gender-neutral Finnish into English. The result reflected gender stereotypes. Sentences that the system associated with typically female activities were translated with the female case, and those with typically male activities were translated with the male case.
Such translations pose a problem when it comes to eradicating gender stereotypes. The fact that women are allowed to vote, study, and take up professions, and even roles that were only open to men until recently can now be exercised as a matter of course, is not self-evident and also has a lot to do with language and pointing out opportunities.
Continue reading “Gender Stereotyping in Google Translate”
Palm readers, priestesses and witches have been associated with predictions and divination for millennia. While palm readers, witches, or tea brewers receive little social respect, virgin priestesses, such as in the Oracle of Delphi, were held in high esteem. Kings … Continue reading Cassandra or The Future is Female