1. Google “What age groups use Facebook” vs “… TikTok”? What does the data say? Is there purposeful exclusion in these platforms? Is it harmful? Should it be corrected? Is it good business?

The older generation tend to use Facebook, while the new and young generation tend to use TikTok. 60% of the users on TikTok are ages 16-24. The average age of users that use Facebook range from 25 to 34 years old. These platforms do give purpose in giving information and entertainment to people, however it can be harmful as the content you receive can be very polarized, and usually put through algorithms to give the content you wish to see. It is definitely a good business, but takes advantage of people because many will believe whatever they see on social media, whether it is true or not. This makes our society less educated in certain topics and giving out information that is false to many others.

  1. Why do virtual assistants have female voices? Amazon, Alexa Google, Apple Siri. Was this purposeful? Is it harmful? Should it be corrected? Is it good business?

Virtual assistants have female voices because they tend to be more friendly and sound more helpful. But this can definitely put a gender stereotype on girls, because male and female voices should be equally used in a society that believes in gender equality. By using only female voices, it may discredit a virtual assistant if they have a male voice, making them not trust the information they give you because you think there voice isn’t as appealing.

  1. Talk about an algorithm that influences your decisions, think about these companies (ie FAANG - Facebook, Amazon, Apple,Netflix, Google)
  • Netflix has an algorithm that shows movies and shows that you prefer watching
  • TikTok uses a algorithm that gives you content that is personalized to what you want to see
  • Amazon recommends buying stuff based on what you purchased last or browse
  • Google will keep what you search and store that data for the next time you search something similar to that

As Pairs (5 minutes)

  1. Does the owner of the computer think this was intentional? If yes or no, justify you conclusion.

I think the owner did think this was done intentionally, and he thinks that his skin tone is the reason why his face doesn’t track but his white co-worker gets tracked.

  1. How do you think this happened?

Lack of testing for their code, they probably didn’t account for all colors of skin that could be tracked, such as this person in the video.

  1. Is this harmful? Was it intended to be harmful or exclude?

This is harmful because it puts the impression that their facial recognition is racist, even if that wasn’t their intent.

  1. Should it be corrected?

It should definitely be corrected because it takes out a portion of humans that cannot use facial recognition because of their skin tone.

  1. What would you or should you do to produce a better outcome?

Test it on all different colors of skin, making sure that it tracks everyone so that anyone, no matter the race can use the facial recognition feature.

Summary of Exercises

My overall thoughts on the questions we answered above is that companies all over the internet have their biases and algorithms that the users experience on their site. I feel that part of the reason why is because all these companies are at constant competition with each other, so they have to do whatever possible to keep the users engaged. Whether it be through using algorithms based on users experience, it can just be small things that relate to a user’s search so that they stay engaged on the site.