The moral bias behind your search results | Andreas Ekstrøm | TEDxOslo
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0:01 - 0:04So whenever I visit a school
and talk to students, -
0:04 - 0:06I always ask them the same thing:
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0:07 - 0:08Why do you Google?
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0:09 - 0:12Why is Google the search engine
of choice for you? -
0:13 - 0:15Strangely enough, I always get
the same three answers. -
0:15 - 0:17One, "Because it works,"
-
0:17 - 0:20which is a great answer;
that's why I Google, too. -
0:20 - 0:22Two, somebody will say,
-
0:22 - 0:25"I really don't know of any alternatives."
-
0:26 - 0:29It's not an equally great answer
and my reply to that is usually, -
0:29 - 0:31"Try to Google the word 'search engine,'
-
0:31 - 0:33you may find a couple
of interesting alternatives." -
0:33 - 0:35And last but not least, thirdly,
-
0:35 - 0:39inevitably, one student will raise
her or his hand and say, -
0:39 - 0:44"With Google, I'm certain to always get
the best, unbiased search result." -
0:45 - 0:52Certain to always get the best,
unbiased search result. -
0:53 - 0:55Now, as a man of the humanities,
-
0:56 - 0:58albeit a digital humanities man,
-
0:58 - 0:59that just makes my skin curl,
-
0:59 - 1:04even if I, too, realize that that trust,
that idea of the unbiased search result -
1:04 - 1:08is a cornerstone in our collective love
for and appreciation of Google. -
1:09 - 1:13I will show you why that, philosophically,
is almost an impossibility. -
1:13 - 1:16But let me first elaborate,
just a little bit, on a basic principle -
1:16 - 1:19behind each search query
that we sometimes seem to forget. -
1:20 - 1:22So whenever you set out
to Google something, -
1:22 - 1:26start by asking yourself this:
"Am I looking for an isolated fact?" -
1:26 - 1:29What is the capital of France?
-
1:30 - 1:32What are the building blocks
of a water molecule? -
1:32 - 1:34Great -- Google away.
-
1:34 - 1:37There's not a group of scientists
who are this close to proving -
1:37 - 1:39that it's actually London and H30.
-
1:39 - 1:42You don't see a big conspiracy
among those things. -
1:42 - 1:43We agree, on a global scale,
-
1:43 - 1:46what the answers are
to these isolated facts. -
1:46 - 1:52But if you complicate your question
just a little bit and ask something like, -
1:52 - 1:54"Why is there
an Israeli-Palestine conflict?" -
1:55 - 1:58You're not exactly looking
for a singular fact anymore, -
1:58 - 1:59you're looking for knowledge,
-
1:59 - 2:02which is something way more
complicated and delicate. -
2:03 - 2:04And to get to knowledge,
-
2:04 - 2:07you have to bring 10 or 20
or 100 facts to the table -
2:07 - 2:10and acknowledge them and say,
"Yes, these are all true." -
2:10 - 2:12But because of who I am,
-
2:12 - 2:14young or old, black or white,
gay or straight, -
2:14 - 2:16I will value them differently.
-
2:16 - 2:18And I will say, "Yes, this is true,
-
2:18 - 2:20but this is more important
to me than that." -
2:20 - 2:22And this is where it becomes interesting,
-
2:22 - 2:24because this is where we become human.
-
2:24 - 2:27This is when we start
to argue, to form society. -
2:27 - 2:30And to really get somewhere,
we need to filter all our facts here, -
2:30 - 2:33through friends and neighbors
and parents and children -
2:33 - 2:35and coworkers and newspapers
and magazines, -
2:35 - 2:38to finally be grounded in real knowledge,
-
2:38 - 2:42which is something that a search engine
is a poor help to achieve. -
2:43 - 2:50So, I promised you an example
just to show you why it's so hard -
2:50 - 2:53to get to the point of true, clean,
objective knowledge -- -
2:53 - 2:55as food for thought.
-
2:55 - 2:58I will conduct a couple of simple
queries, search queries. -
2:58 - 3:03We'll start with "Michelle Obama,"
-
3:03 - 3:04the First Lady of the United States.
-
3:04 - 3:06And we'll click for pictures.
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3:07 - 3:09It works really well, as you can see.
-
3:09 - 3:12It's a perfect search
result, more or less. -
3:12 - 3:15It's just her in the picture,
not even the President. -
3:16 - 3:17How does this work?
-
3:18 - 3:19Quite simple.
-
3:19 - 3:22Google uses a lot of smartness
to achieve this, but quite simply, -
3:22 - 3:25they look at two things
more than anything. -
3:25 - 3:30First, what does it say in the caption
under the picture on each website? -
3:30 - 3:32Does it say "Michelle Obama"
under the picture? -
3:32 - 3:34Pretty good indication
it's actually her on there. -
3:34 - 3:37Second, Google looks at the picture file,
-
3:37 - 3:40the name of the file as such
uploaded to the website. -
3:40 - 3:42Again, is it called "MichelleObama.jpeg"?
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3:43 - 3:46Pretty good indication it's not
Clint Eastwood in the picture. -
3:46 - 3:50So, you've got those two and you get
a search result like this -- almost. -
3:50 - 3:57Now, in 2009, Michelle Obama
was the victim of a racist campaign, -
3:57 - 4:01where people set out to insult her
through her search results. -
4:01 - 4:04There was a picture distributed
widely over the Internet -
4:04 - 4:07where her face was distorted
to look like a monkey. -
4:07 - 4:10And that picture was published all over.
-
4:10 - 4:14And people published it
very, very purposefully, -
4:14 - 4:16to get it up there in the search results.
-
4:16 - 4:19They made sure to write
"Michelle Obama" in the caption -
4:19 - 4:23and they made sure to upload the picture
as "MichelleObama.jpeg," or the like. -
4:23 - 4:25You get why -- to manipulate
the search result. -
4:25 - 4:27And it worked, too.
-
4:27 - 4:29So when you picture-Googled
for "Michelle Obama" in 2009, -
4:29 - 4:33that distorted monkey picture
showed up among the first results. -
4:33 - 4:36Now, the results are self-cleansing,
-
4:36 - 4:38and that's sort of the beauty of it,
-
4:38 - 4:42because Google measures relevance
every hour, every day. -
4:42 - 4:44However, Google didn't settle
for that this time, -
4:44 - 4:47they just thought, "That's racist
and it's a bad search result -
4:48 - 4:51and we're going to go back
and clean that up manually. -
4:51 - 4:54We are going to write
some code and fix it," -
4:54 - 4:55which they did.
-
4:55 - 4:59And I don't think anyone in this room
thinks that was a bad idea. -
5:00 - 5:01Me neither.
-
5:03 - 5:06But then, a couple of years go by,
-
5:06 - 5:09and the world's most-Googled Anders,
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5:09 - 5:11Anders Behring Breivik,
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5:11 - 5:13did what he did.
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5:13 - 5:15This is July 22 in 2011,
-
5:15 - 5:18and a terrible day in Norwegian history.
-
5:18 - 5:21This man, a terrorist, blew up
a couple of government buildings -
5:21 - 5:24walking distance from where we are
right now in Oslo, Norway -
5:24 - 5:26and then he traveled
to the island of Utøya -
5:26 - 5:29and shot and killed a group of kids.
-
5:29 - 5:31Almost 80 people died that day.
-
5:32 - 5:37And a lot of people would describe
this act of terror as two steps, -
5:37 - 5:40that he did two things: he blew up
the buildings and he shot those kids. -
5:40 - 5:42It's not true.
-
5:42 - 5:44It was three steps.
-
5:44 - 5:47He blew up those buildings,
he shot those kids, -
5:47 - 5:50and he sat down and waited
for the world to Google him. -
5:51 - 5:54And he prepared
all three steps equally well. -
5:55 - 5:57And if there was somebody
who immediately understood this, -
5:57 - 5:59it was a Swedish web developer,
-
5:59 - 6:03a search engine optimization expert
in Stockholm, named Nikke Lindqvist. -
6:03 - 6:04He's also a very political guy
-
6:04 - 6:07and he was right out there
in social media, on his blog and Facebook. -
6:07 - 6:09And he told everybody,
-
6:09 - 6:11"If there's something that
this guy wants right now, -
6:11 - 6:14it's to control the image of himself.
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6:15 - 6:17Let's see if we can distort that.
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6:17 - 6:21Let's see if we, in the civilized world,
can protest against what he did -
6:21 - 6:25through insulting him
in his search results." -
6:25 - 6:26And how?
-
6:27 - 6:29He told all of his readers the following,
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6:29 - 6:31"Go out there on the Internet,
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6:31 - 6:34find pictures of dog poop on sidewalks --
-
6:35 - 6:37find pictures of dog poop on sidewalks --
-
6:37 - 6:40publish them in your feeds,
on your websites, on your blogs. -
6:40 - 6:43Make sure to write the terrorist's
name in the caption, -
6:43 - 6:48make sure to name
the picture file "Breivik.jpeg." -
6:48 - 6:52Let's teach Google that that's
the face of the terrorist." -
6:54 - 6:55And it worked.
-
6:56 - 6:59Two years after that campaign
against Michelle Obama, -
6:59 - 7:02this manipulation campaign
against Anders Behring Breivik worked. -
7:02 - 7:07If you picture-Googled for him weeks after
the July 22 events from Sweden, -
7:07 - 7:11you'd see that picture of dog poop
high up in the search results, -
7:11 - 7:12as a little protest.
-
7:13 - 7:18Strangely enough, Google
didn't intervene this time. -
7:18 - 7:23They did not step in and manually
clean those search results up. -
7:24 - 7:26So the million-dollar question,
-
7:26 - 7:29is there anything different
between these two happenings here? -
7:29 - 7:32Is there anything different between
what happened to Michelle Obama -
7:32 - 7:34and what happened
to Anders Behring Breivik? -
7:34 - 7:36Of course not.
-
7:37 - 7:38It's the exact same thing,
-
7:38 - 7:41yet Google intervened in one case
and not in the other. -
7:41 - 7:42Why?
-
7:43 - 7:47Because Michelle Obama
is an honorable person, that's why, -
7:47 - 7:50and Anders Behring Breivik
is a despicable person. -
7:50 - 7:52See what happens there?
-
7:52 - 7:55An evaluation of a person takes place
-
7:55 - 7:59and there's only one
power-player in the world -
7:59 - 8:01with the authority to say who's who.
-
8:02 - 8:04"We like you, we dislike you.
-
8:04 - 8:06We believe in you,
we don't believe in you. -
8:06 - 8:08You're right, you're wrong.
You're true, you're false. -
8:08 - 8:10You're Obama, and you're Breivik."
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8:11 - 8:13That's power if I ever saw it.
-
8:15 - 8:19So I'm asking you to remember
that behind every algorithm -
8:19 - 8:21is always a person,
-
8:21 - 8:23a person with a set of personal beliefs
-
8:23 - 8:26that no code can ever
completely eradicate. -
8:26 - 8:28And my message goes
out not only to Google, -
8:28 - 8:31but to all believers in the faith
of code around the world. -
8:31 - 8:34You need to identify
your own personal bias. -
8:34 - 8:36You need to understand that you are human
-
8:36 - 8:39and take responsibility accordingly.
-
8:40 - 8:43And I say this because I believe
we've reached a point in time -
8:43 - 8:44when it's absolutely imperative
-
8:44 - 8:48that we tie those bonds
together again, tighter: -
8:48 - 8:50the humanities and the technology.
-
8:50 - 8:52Tighter than ever.
-
8:52 - 8:56And, if nothing else, to remind us
that that wonderfully seductive idea -
8:56 - 8:58of the unbiased, clean search result
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8:58 - 9:01is, and is likely to remain, a myth.
-
9:02 - 9:03Thank you for your time.
-
9:03 - 9:06(Applause)
- Title:
- The moral bias behind your search results | Andreas Ekstrøm | TEDxOslo
- Description:
-
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 09:16
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for The myth of the unbiased search result | Andreas Ekstrøm | TEDxOslo | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for The myth of the unbiased search result | Andreas Ekstrøm | TEDxOslo | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for The myth of the unbiased search result | Andreas Ekstrøm | TEDxOslo | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for The myth of the unbiased search result | Andreas Ekstrøm | TEDxOslo | ||
TED Translators admin edited English subtitles for The myth of the unbiased search result | Andreas Ekstrøm | TEDxOslo |