Marketplace Tech

Twitter wants bounty hunters to help fix its image-cropping algorithm


Listen Later

Back in May, Twitter partially disabled an algorithm that cropped photos posted by users in ways that revealed certain biases. A company audit, and plenty of people on the internet, found the algorithm preferred white faces over Black faces, and women over men. Now, as part of the hacker conference DEF CON, which starts tomorrow, the company is offering a cash bounty to help fix the problem. Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino speaks with Rumman Chowdhury, director of Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency and Accountability at Twitter. Before that, she was founder and CEO of Parity, which helped other companies identify bias in their algorithms. Chowdhury says the cropping algorithm was based on data tracking where real people tended to look in photos.

Correction (Aug. 5, 2021): A previous version of this story misstated how Twitter’s algorithm was biased. The audio has been corrected.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Marketplace TechBy Marketplace

  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5
  • 4.5

4.5

1,235 ratings


More shows like Marketplace Tech

View all
Science Friday by Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Science Friday

6,097 Listeners

WSJ Tech News Briefing by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Tech News Briefing

1,647 Listeners

Marketplace Morning Report by Marketplace

Marketplace Morning Report

890 Listeners

WSJ Your Money Briefing by The Wall Street Journal

WSJ Your Money Briefing

1,747 Listeners

Marketplace by Marketplace

Marketplace

8,630 Listeners

Planet Money by NPR

Planet Money

30,821 Listeners

Marketplace All-in-One by Marketplace

Marketplace All-in-One

1,358 Listeners

Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,252 Listeners

The Uncertain Hour by Marketplace

The Uncertain Hour

2,168 Listeners

Make Me Smart by Marketplace

Make Me Smart

5,490 Listeners

Bold Names by The Wall Street Journal

Bold Names

1,433 Listeners

The Indicator from Planet Money by NPR

The Indicator from Planet Money

9,555 Listeners

This Is Uncomfortable by Marketplace

This Is Uncomfortable

3,581 Listeners

Short Wave by NPR

Short Wave

6,244 Listeners

Marketplace Minute by Marketplace

Marketplace Minute

163 Listeners

Million Bazillion by Marketplace

Million Bazillion

2,695 Listeners

The Big Take by Bloomberg

The Big Take

155 Listeners

How We Survive by Marketplace

How We Survive

1,319 Listeners

Financially Inclined by Marketplace

Financially Inclined

82 Listeners