{"id":41608,"date":"2021-04-29T11:42:14","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T08:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=41608"},"modified":"2025-08-30T19:31:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T16:31:00","slug":"briton-accuses-government-facial-recognition-ai-of-racism-over-facial-recognition-errors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/briton-accuses-government-facial-recognition-ai-of-racism-over-facial-recognition-errors\/","title":{"rendered":"Briton accuses government facial-recognition AI of racism over facial-recognition errors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Black activist Joris Lechen said that the passport photo he provided was rejected by the UK government\\&#8217;s website because the artificial intelligence failed to recognise his &#8220;melanistic attractiveness&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@joris_explains\/video\/6953984150747794694\" data-video-id=\"6953984150747794694\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;\">\n<section> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"@joris_explains\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@joris_explains\" rel=\"noopener\">@joris_explains<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Automation is never diversity-friendly. <a title=\"learnontiktok\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/learnontiktok\" rel=\"noopener\">#LearnOnTikTok<\/a> <a title=\"diversity\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/diversity\" rel=\"noopener\">#diversity<\/a> <a title=\"technology\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/technology\" rel=\"noopener\">#technology<\/a> <a title=\"artificialintelligence\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/artificialintelligence\" rel=\"noopener\">#artificialintelligence<\/a> <a title=\"ukcitizen\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/ukcitizen\" rel=\"noopener\">#ukcitizen<\/a> <a title=\"bias\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/bias\" rel=\"noopener\">#bias<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"\u266c Clock It - Clutch\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/Clock-It-6777279428176119809\" rel=\"noopener\">\u266c Clock It \u2014 Clutch<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The man says the image complied with all the requirements of the application guidelines.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u00abBut this photograph was rejected because the artificial intelligence software had not been designed for people of my phenotype\u00bb, \u2014 said he.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Lechen shared a screenshot of the photo he submitted. It shows a young man in a black T-shirt with his mouth closed against a stark gray background.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/qsqHZDXHg3UAanHUrrVDti1fK9fU7nJ6u6nGPKE15aQkmvc5dfQy3S5n5Xx42uPw6jDiuGxA4dLNF-Y867KGBs_koxcbV7seeVYyj6a_vCnS0HEty9zqBMHDTtbCund3Y4o1Jzam\" alt=\"\u0411\u0440\u0438\u0442\u0430\u043d\u0435\u0446 \u043e\u0431\u0432\u0438\u043d\u0438\u043b \u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u0438\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0418\u0418 \u0432 \u0440\u0430\u0441\u0438\u0437\u043c\u0435 \u0438\u0437-\u0437\u0430 \u043e\u0448\u0438\u0431\u043e\u043a \u043e\u043f\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0435\u043b\u0435\u043d\u0438\u044f \u043b\u0438\u0446\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>However, the government website rejected the photo because his mouth could be open, and the image and background were difficult to distinguish.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u00abThe software often errs because hair does not fall across the face, and for some reason it treats them as the background. And it has a habit of thinking that people like me walk around with their mouths open\u00bb, \u2014 added Lechen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier in April, the face-recognition algorithms of Proctorio, which monitors students to prevent cheating on exams, <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/racist-face-recognition-algorithm-integrated-into-anti-cheating-software\">accused of bias<\/a> against dark-skinned users.<\/p>\n<p>In early 2019, a Black man <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/microsoft-creates-technology-to-talk-to-the-dead-google-unveils-a-gpt-3-rival-and-other-ai-news\">spent ten days in jail<\/a> due to a facial-recognition error. The man intends to sue the local police over the baseless arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog\\&#8217;s Telegram news: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/forklogAI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ForkLog AI<\/a> \u2014 all the news from the world of AI!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black activist Joris Lechen said that the passport photo he provided was rejected by the UK government\\&#8217;s website because the artificial intelligence failed to recognise his &#8220;melanistic attractiveness&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438],"class_list":["post-41608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"23","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41609,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41608\/revisions\/41609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}