Google app commits blunder

Google’s new image-recognition program misfired badly this week by identifying two black people as gorillas, delivering a mortifying reminder that even the most intelligent machines still have lot to learn about human sensitivity.

The blunder surfaced in a smartphone screenshot posted online Sunday by a New York man on his Twitter account. The images showed the recently released Google Photos app had sorted a picture of two black people into a category labeled as “gorillas.”

The accountholder used a profanity while expressing his dismay about the app likening his friend to an ape, a comparison widely regarded as a racial slur when applied to a black person.

“We’re appalled and genuinely sorry that this happened,” Google spokeswoman Katie Watson said. “We are taking immediate action to prevent this type of result from appearing.”

A tweet to @jackyalcine requesting an interview did not receive a response on Thursday.

Google’s error underscores the pitfalls of relying on machines to handle tedious tasks that people have typically handled in the past.

In this case, the Google Photos app released in late May uses recognition software to analyze images in pictures to sort them into a variety of categories, including places, activities and animals.

When the app came out, Google executives warned it probably wouldn’t get everything right – a point that has now been hammered home. Besides mistaking humans for gorillas, the app also has been mocked for labeling some people as seals and some dogs as horses.

“There is still clearly a lot of work to do with automatic image labeling,” Watson conceded.

This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Google app commits blunder."