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I just read a report that said a facial recognition system in my city had a 35% higher error rate for women with darker skin.

Honestly, I found this stat in a local news article about police tech, and it makes me wonder how many other public systems have hidden biases like this that we just don't know about yet.
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jennys72
jennys721mo ago
35% higher error rate? That's a huge difference, not some small glitch. Makes you question every decision made using that system. What if someone got arrested because of a bad match? Scary to think what else is out there with flaws nobody talks about.
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ryanh56
ryanh561mo ago
Reminds me of a friend who got a parking ticket from a plate reader that mixed up a B for an 8. Took him weeks to fix it. Makes you wonder, like @jennys72 said, how many bigger mistakes slip through with no check. If a simple parking system can mess up, imagine the pressure on cops using a flawed facial match. That's how innocent people get dragged in over a computer's guess.
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piper_burns
Did you used to think this stuff was mostly accurate too, @jennys72? I used to trust that these systems were pretty neutral until I saw that stat, and now I'm second guessing everything. It's wild how a simple computer mistake can mess up someone's life.
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