Big Idea 5.3 Computing Bias

• Intentional or Purposeful bias (Crossover Group Up, 10 minutes)
• As Pairs (5 minutes)

Intentional or Purposeful bias (Crossover Group Up, 10 minutes)

• Google “What age groups use Facebook” vs “… TikTok”? What does the data say? Is there purposeful exclusion in these platforms? Is it harmful? Should it be corrected? Is it good business?
  • Ages 25-34 use Facebook
  • Ages 10-19 use TikTok
  • This data shows that Facebook is focused towards older audiences, possible more mature audiences. TikTok is more for younger audiences because they are more attracted to the ease of use of the app and the short funny videos.
  • The difference may be because of the times the social media apps were made
  • I think TikTok is being attracted to most ages, but Facebook is not because the younger generation is not interested in it.
• Why do virtual assistants have female voices? Amazon, Alexa Google, Apple Siri. Was this purposeful? Is it harmful? Should it be corrected? Is it good business?
  • Female voices are used as virtual assistants because it may be more softer and less assertive compared to a masculine voice
  • It may also be from the subconcious gender role of the past where women are supposed to help men and do things for them
  • It may be offending to women and men in the world
  • It has been corrected for some virtual assistants because you can pick the voices you wnat the assistant to be
  • But things like Alexa cannot change the voice
• Talk about an algorithm that influences your decisions, think about these companies (ie FAANG - Facebook, Amazon, Apple,Netflix, Google)
  • These companies have an algorithm that would suggest ads and videos based on your previous choices and actions on the website
  • This may be good but it might be seen as an invasion of privacy
  • This shouldn’t be fixed though because it is helpful for users and it helps the user find things that they are more interested in

As Pairs (5 minutes)

• Does the owner of the computer think this was intentional?
  • The owner of the computer thinks this was intentional because he is saying that HP computers is purposely not recognizing his face.
• If yes or no, justify you conclusion.
  • He thinks this because when he put his face in the camera, the computer did not recognize his face and it does not move to follow his face. He claims this is racist because the white woman’s face was recognized, while his face was not followed.
• How do you think this happened?
  • I think this happened due to not enough tests done by HP. They did not test the stuff on people of different skin complexion.
• Is this harmful? Was it intended to be harmful or exclude?
  • I think this may not be harmful, but it would be more offensive to those with darker skin because the feature does not work on their skin.
• Should it be corrected?
  • It should be corrected because it is not fair for those with darker skin, while those with lighter skin, it does work. This should be fixed to work on all skin complexions.
• What would you or should you do to produce a better outcome?
  • To produce a better outcome, the HP people should use resources of people with darker skin complexion, not only light complexion people.