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Comment by ALittleLight | Hacker News Reader

The video features white and black men. It seems like concluding the algorithm is calling black men primates is the same kind of error people are accusing the algorithm/Facebook of. i.e. The reason you think it's racist is because you assume it's talking about black people specifically suggesting you think the word is more apt to describe black people.

Primates and humans are similar labels. This was almost certainly not intentional. Video classifiers are going to make mistakes - sometimes crude or offensive ones. I don't get outrage over labeling errors like this. Facebook should fix the issue - but they shouldn't apologize. It only encourages grievance seekers.

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We’re assuming it because that’s exactly what has happened with other products in the past. It’s an issue the field has struggled with, so it seems likely.

Maybe I'm not aware of what you're referring to, but I don't think so. I think, like this incident, companies apologize for stuff like this because they lack the courage to say the truth, which is that it's an unfortunate labeling error but not a big deal. Instead, they judge it to be more political to beg forgiveness. Of course, the people who get offended by labeling errors are only encouraged by apologies and use them as evidence of wrongdoing.

Intentional or not, the outcome is all that matters.

In every aspect of your life

I don't know if this is necessarily true. We have separate charges for murder and manslaughter for example.

The end outcome and impact on everyone (in your case, the deceased, the family) depends on intent.

Doesn’t change the original statement I made one bit

Speak for yourself. Intent is one of the key factors in crime investigations. Even in 'every aspect of life', intent plays a critical role in greasing the society's abrasion. It helps us understand each other better. Did you accidentally bumped me or did you try to push me out of the bus?

Intent can and will influence the outcome.

Does not change anything about my original statement.

The end outcome of “oops I bumped into you” is basically nothing. The end outcome of an intentional shove is quite different (maybe lack of trust develops, etc)

The end outcome of punching someone in the face while drunk and saying “hey brah I didn’t mean to” is still gonna feel shitty no matter the intent

> The reason you think it's racist is because you assume it's talking about black people specifically suggesting you think the word is more apt to describe black people.

No, I think it's racist because racists have a long history of calling black people primates, and because an automated system doesn't get to escape scrutiny and critique just because someone didn't specifically put in a line of code that emulates the actions of racists.

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