Ethical Issues in Classification

Classification raises many questionable dilemmas, especially with large companies that have access to the population's personal information. As seen with Amazon's facial recognition project which was able to recognize white males with 100% accuracy but only 60% accuracy with darker females. This brings up more debates about the ethical standpoints that these systems will bring. We also see major steps over personal boundaries where algorithms are being calibrated with people's facial features without their consent. Individuals are classified into negative categories without their knowledge of the subject.

An additional subject in classification ethics is how Image classification doesn’t relay the whole meaning behind images that are scanned. Take for example a picture of Ruby Bridges being escorted by federal agents. If run through an image classification the results wouldn't be able to display that it is a picture of Ruby Bridges. It would only pick up the fact that there are 4 white males and 1 black child. It is unable to show the entire meaning behind the image. Another example from the presentation mentioned how a "picture" of an apple is only classified as an apple. The algorithm is unable to tell that the subject it is classifying is actually a picture. Whereas humans are able to determine right away if they are looking at an apple or just a picture of the apple. This example shows that there are still small details that can not be fully examined by recognition software. Sure it is possible to create an AI that is capable of these tasks but as of right now they are only using the information they can physically detect.

Another significant issue that we face is the demand for certain features that a select few companies provide. We rely on the use of these features to make our everyday lives easier but it comes at the cost of our personal information being gathered. What makes it even worse is for most people it is impossible to completely stop using things like Google Search, Emails, and Social Media. Our Government has taken small steps to prevent the use of collected data but it still needs to be pushed more.