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You know I'm fine with that attitude if it's combined with actual humility. Often as not, however, these high profile guys are shooting off on Twitter about every issue under the sun. But when it comes to racism, suddenly they're just narrow technicians and it's nothing to do with them.

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I don't know if it is about racism. I think it's normal to become defensive when accused. If I say "your ML model is garbage" I am sure they will (maybe, if I am high-profile too) provide an explanation on why or why not.

This long twitter thread about racism isn't about racism?

Sorry, I expressed it wrong. I wanted to say that when someone is accused of something, including of being a racist or something related to racism, it's normal to be defensive about it and take that posture.

I don't think the researcher was being defensive just because it was about racism.

I think the key issues are primarily related to race.

Many see these systems as a way to implement stop-and-frisk (quite racist outcomes) and worse across the country using AI/ML as cover. The higher error rate amongst darker skin people gives LE a new excuse to harass innocent historically disenfranchised people.

I expect this tech will be widely used long before the accuracy problem that affects ~60% of the global population is fixed.

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