Describe in the margins why these points are important
Write questions that it raises for you
Summarize the article in 5 - 6 sentences
(CNN Business)Twitter has largely abandoned an image-cropping algorithm after determining the automated system was biased. Some users complained it had a preference toward showing pictures of white people in previews of tweets.
In a blog post on Wednesday, Rumman Chowdhury, a software engineering director for Twitter's machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability team, wrote that the company concluded the algorithm was biased after testing it for gender- and race-based biases. The post and an accompanying research paper detail how the cropping system, when tested on randomly linked images of people of various races and genders, favored White people over Black people and women over men, for instance.
Twitter's conclusion comes months after the company said it would look into the algorithm, and serves as yet another example of how bias can creep into computer systems that are meant to perform tasks that humans are often uniquely good at doing.
"We considered the tradeoffs between the speed and consistency of automated cropping with the potential risks we saw in this research," Chowdhury wrote. "One of our conclusions is that not everything on Twitter is a good candidate for an algorithm, and in this case, how to crop an image is a decision best made by people."
In March, Twitter started testing a new way to show a full image — rather than an automatically cropped preview version — on mobile devices when a user tweeted a single image. The company said that, following positive feedback, it rolled out the feature to all its iOS and Android users in May. (It center-crops images that are extremely long or wide, however).
A Twitter spokesperson told CNN Business on Wednesday that the change came to Twitter's mobile app first since that's how most people tweet and look at images.
When the image-cropping algorithm was in place, any time a user posted an image to Twitter, the automated system would crop a preview version of that image that viewers would see before clicking through to the full-size image. Twitter said in a blog post in 2018 that it previously used face detection to help figure out how
to crop images for previews. However, the face-detecting software was prone to errors. The company scrapped that approach and instead had its software home in on what's known as "saliency" in pictures, or the area considered most interesting to a person looking at the overall image. Saliency is studied by tracking what people look at; we tend to be interested in things like people, animals, and text, for instance.
Last September the company was prompted to study its algorithmic approach to cropping images after numerous tweets criticized it. These included one from Twitter user @bascule, who on September 19 tweeted, "Trying a horrible experiment... Which will the Twitter algorithm pick: Mitch McConnell or Barack Obama?" Along with his words were two long, rectangular images. The first consisted of a picture of US Senate majority leader McConnell on the top, who is White, with a slender white rectangle in the middle, and a picture of former US President Obama, who is Black, at the bottom. The second featured the opposite, with Obama at the top and McConnell at the bottom. With Twitter's image-cropping algorithm in use, preview versions of the images, which are side by side, show just McConnell.
A day earlier, another Twitter user, @colinmadland, noticed a similar preview result when he posted a picture that he said showed himself, a White man, next to a picture of a Black man with whom he attended an online meeting; Twitter's preview defaulted to showing just the White man.
In a response to @bascule at the time, the company tweeted that it didn't see evidence of racial or gender bias during testing before releasing the preview feature, but said it would look into whether there were issues with the cropping algorithm.
In Twitter's blog post on Wednesday, Chowdhury wrote that the move away from using an algorithm to crop images lowers the company's dependency on machine learning (an artificial intelligence technique where a computer teaches itself by poring over data) "for a function that we agree is best performed by people using our products."
The Twitter spokesperson said the company plans to dump the image-cropping algorithm on the Twitter website in the next few months. The algorithm is also used in a couple other ways, such as when a person tweets multiple images; the spokesperson said Twitter is working on improvements for those uses, too.
3 answers
Important Points:
Twitter abandoned the image-cropping algorithm due to bias. Importance: Underlines the issue of bias in AI systems, highlighting that algorithms can perpetuate existing social inequalities. Questions Raised: What other aspects of social media algorithms may exhibit similar biases? How can companies ensure bias is mitigated in future AI designs?
Testing revealed that the algorithm favored white people and men. Importance: This finding emphasizes the need for diverse data and testing to ensure fairness in technology. Questions Raised: How representative is the training data for other AI systems? What steps can be taken to diversify datasets effectively?
Chowdhury stated that cropping decisions are best made by humans. Importance: Indicates a shift in perspective on the role of AI, suggesting that not all tasks should be automated. Questions Raised: In what other areas should human judgment take precedence over algorithms? What criteria should be used to determine this?
Response to public criticism prompted the algorithm evaluation. Importance: Highlights the importance of user feedback and public scrutiny in tech development. Questions Raised: How can user feedback be integrated more effectively into tech companies’ decision-making processes? What mechanisms can be employed to ensure ongoing scrutiny of algorithms?
Rolling out a new feature that displays full images. Importance: Suggests a shift toward more user-friendly features that consider visual content in its entirety instead of relying on biased algorithms. Questions Raised: How do users perceive these changes, and does it improve user engagement? Will this trend continue in other aspects of the platform?
Summary:
Twitter has decided to abandon its biased image-cropping algorithm, which was found to favor white people and men, after public complaints highlighted the issue. Rumman Chowdhury, a director at Twitter, announced this decision through a blog post detailing research on the algorithm's bias. The company concluded that certain tasks, such as cropping images, are better suited for human judgment rather than automation. Following the feedback from users, Twitter recently began testing a feature that shows full images rather than cropped previews. This shift underscores the ongoing discussion about the limitations and biases of AI in social media platforms, as Twitter plans to further improve its image processing features in the upcoming months.
Should i underline or highlight
The choice between underlining and highlighting really depends on your personal preference and how you plan to use the notes later. Here are some considerations for each method:
Underlining:
Pros:
Helps to draw attention to key phrases or concepts without altering the text visually too much.
Works well if you want to maintain the overall appearance of the document while still emphasizing important points.
Cons:
May be less visually striking than highlighting, making it harder to quickly recognize the important points, especially in dense text.
Highlighting:
Pros:
Bold and visually distinct, making important information stand out more clearly.
Useful for quickly scanning a document later to find vital information.
Cons:
Can be overwhelming if too much text is highlighted, which can defeat the purpose of emphasizing key points.
Might not be as aesthetically pleasing to some people.
Recommendation:
If the goal is to clearly identify important points for quick reference, highlighting might be the better option. However, if you prefer a more subtle approach that integrates with the text, underlining could be more suitable. You can also combine both methods—highlighting main ideas and underlining subpoints—if that helps you better organize the information.
