“My issue with this has always been that Microsoft managed to get some undeserved good press by stating that they would retire these services, citing ethical concerns,” Ada Ada Ada told me. “It’s my impression that no one really took their time to make sure this harmful technology was actually retired. They did not care that it actually got taken out of commission by the time they said they would. What mattered was just that they could reap the rewards of that good press, hence only caring about new user access, not existing customer access. If it weren’t for us bringing this matter to them, it would likely have been available for years.”
“I think this issue speaks to a lot of corporate talk surrounding ‘ethical AI.’” she added. “AI companies claim to follow these vague principles, but do not actually offer any researchers, journalists or even artists the means to properly follow up on them. We just have to talk their word for it.”
Maiberg, E. (2024, October 31). Microsoft Provided Gender Detection AI on Accident. 404 Media. https://www.404media.co/email/1d1f0ba9-c6e5-4fd2-b499-f8279b292d6f/