Incident 127: Microsoft’s Algorithm Allegedly Selected Photo of the Wrong Mixed-Race Person Featured in a News Story

Description: A news story published on MSN.com featured a photo of the wrong mixed-race person that was allegedly selected by an algorithm, following Microsoft’s layoff and replacement of journalists and editorial workers at its organizations with AI systems.

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Alleged: Microsoft developed an AI system deployed by Microsoft and MSN.com, which harmed Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
127
Report Count
12
Incident Date
2020-06-06
Editors
Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam
Microsoft lays off journalists to replace them with AI
theverge.com · 2020

Microsoft is laying off dozens of journalists and editorial workers at its Microsoft News and MSN organizations. The layoffs are part of a bigger push by Microsoft to rely on artificial intelligence to pick news and content that’s presented…

Microsoft fires journalists to replace them with AI robots
thehansindia.com · 2020

Microsoft fired many journalists after it decided to replace them with artificial intelligence robots.

Staff who maintain the Microsoft's MSN website news homepages on and its Edge browser have been told that they will be no longer needed a…

Microsoft sacks journalists to replace them with robots
theguardian.com · 2020

Dozens of journalists have been sacked after Microsoft decided to replace them with artificial intelligence software.

Staff who maintain the news homepages on Microsoft’s MSN website and its Edge browser – used by millions of Britons every …

MSN Fires Journalists, Replaces Them With AI
futurism.com · 2020

New Algorithm

Over the weekend, Microsoft announced that it’s laying off dozens of journalists, editors, and other workers at MSN and its other news divisions.

While media layoffs are tragically widespread at the moment, Microsoft said that…

Robot uprising begins? Microsoft fires journalists, replaces them with AI
financialexpress.com · 2020

The team working on the Microsoft website did not publish original stories but instead exercised editorial control, choosing articles created by other news outlets and, where necessary, editing material and headlines to suit the format. The…

Microsoft Fires Journalists and replaces them with AI – Top Trending News
techpluto.com · 2020
  1. Microsoft laying dozens of Journalists & COVID 19 is not the reason for this layoff

Tech giant Microsoft is laying off several journalists at its Microsoft News and MSN Organization (Microsoft owns MSN.com). However, this lay off has noth…

Microsoft fires MSN journalists - replaces them with AI robots
techlog360.com · 2020

Now onwards you are going to see news stories generated by AI on homepages of the MSN website and Edge browser.

Microsoft has been fired dozens of journalists and editorial workers at its Microsoft News and MSN organizations — leveraging ro…

Microsoft’s AI journalists confuse mixed-race Little Mix singers
theverge.com · 2020

Microsoft’s decision to replace human journalists with AI to run its news and search site MSN.com has been criticized after the automated system confused two mixed-race members of British pop group Little Mix.

As first reported by The Guard…

Little Mix's Jade Thirlwall slams Microsoft after its AI confuses her with bandmate
mirror.co.uk · 2020

Microsoft's AI editor posted a story about Ms Thirlwall’s experience with racism on the search site MSN.com, but mistakenly used a photo of her bandmate, Ms Pinnock

They’re two of the biggest pop stars in the world, but Little Mix’s Jade Th…

Microsoft's robot editor confuses mixed-race Little Mix singers
theguardian.com · 2020

Microsoft’s decision to replace human journalists with robots has backfired, after the tech company’s artificial intelligence software illustrated a news story about racism with a photo of the wrong mixed-race member of the band Little Mix.…

Backlash after Microsoft's robot editor confuses mixed-race Little Mix singers
thehill.com · 2020

A week after laying off dozens of journalists and editorial workers and replacing them with artificial intelligence, Microsoft’s robot editor confused two members of the British singing group Little Mix, who are both mixed-race.

Singer Jade…

Little Mix' Leigh-Anne Pinnock Gets Mistaken as Jade Thirlwall on MSN; Here's Why it Happened
techtimes.com · 2020

Amid the 'Black Lives Matter' protests happening in the United States, a not surprising error has been made by Microsoft's MSN involving two of the members of Little Mix. An article was written about its member Jade Thirlwall on the front p…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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