May 20, 2015
The Washington Post on Wednesday reported on an unfortunate finding that typing the racial slur "n****r house" or "n****r king" into Google Maps was directing users to The White House.
As of midday Wednesday the incident was still occurring, though Google issued an apology for any offense the results may have caused, adding the company is "working to fix this issue quickly," according to Mashable.
Similarly, the search term "n****r university" from university located Lincoln University, a historical black university.
In breaking the news, The Washington Post also explained that the racist connection was likely made by machine based on algorithms that mimic humor behavior.
"No one at Google or Flickr intentionally programs their algorithms to be racist," Post reporter Caitlin Dewey wrote. "They do, however, program these systems to learn from human behavior and to adapt to it. And, on the whole, unfortunately: People are racist."
The incident raises some fascinating existential questions about technology, Dewey adds, "Like: Do we really want machines to 'learn' from us? Maybe not, honestly."
Read the full article published by The Washington Post here.
