Google explores new way for classifying skin color to prevent products bias

 According to Reuters (international news), Google is working on an alternative to the industry-standard approach for categorizing skin tones, which a rising chorus of technology academics and dermatologists claim is insufficient for determining whether goods are biased against people of color.

Fitzpatrick Skin Type (FST), a six-color scale used by dermatologists since the 1970s, is at issue. It is currently used by tech firms to classify people and determine whether things like face recognition systems or wristwatch heart-rate monitors work equally effectively across skin tones.

FST, which has four categories for “white” skin and one each for “black” and “brown,” according to critics, ignores variety among persons of color. During a federal technology standard meeting last October, researchers from the US Department of Homeland Security advised ditching FST for evaluating face recognition because it fails to reflect the color range in different populations.

In response to Reuters’ inquiries regarding FST, Google claimed that it has been discreetly seeking stronger safeguards, for the first time and ahead of peers. “We are focusing on alternative, more inclusive methods that may be beneficial in the development of our products, and we will collaborate with scientific and medical specialists, as well as groups that deal with communities of color,” the company said.

The company was recently criticized by a group of senators for their alleged poor handling of racial issues.

Senate Democrats Cory Booker, Edward Markey, Mark Warner, and Ron Wyden sent a letter to Alphabet and its subsidiaries Google and YouTube earlier this month, requesting them to conduct a racial equality audit. Companies are slipping behind in terms of racial inclusion in the workplace and the technology, they produce, according to lawmakers.

The senators wrote to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet and Google, Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, and Google’s senior marketing and legal officials, warning that a racial equality audit was “far overdue.”

“We are worried about negative bias at Alphabet, after hearing stories about your firm and its products,” the letter said, warning of ethical difficulties with the corporation’s use of AI. “Problems with Google search algorithms that return non-diverse picture sets for simple queries, as well as the more current dermatological diagnostic algorithm that was not trained on dark skin tones, are concerning.”