Black activist Joris Lechen said that the passport photo he provided was rejected by the UK government\’s website because the artificial intelligence failed to recognise his “melanistic attractiveness”.
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The man says the image complied with all the requirements of the application guidelines.
«But this photograph was rejected because the artificial intelligence software had not been designed for people of my phenotype», — said he.
Lechen shared a screenshot of the photo he submitted. It shows a young man in a black T-shirt with his mouth closed against a stark gray background.
However, the government website rejected the photo because his mouth could be open, and the image and background were difficult to distinguish.
«The software often errs because hair does not fall across the face, and for some reason it treats them as the background. And it has a habit of thinking that people like me walk around with their mouths open», — added Lechen.
Earlier in April, the face-recognition algorithms of Proctorio, which monitors students to prevent cheating on exams, accused of bias against dark-skinned users.
In early 2019, a Black man spent ten days in jail due to a facial-recognition error. The man intends to sue the local police over the baseless arrest.
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