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A Big Corporation (IBM), Acting Ethically?! cool ! (I hope)

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
IBM announced it's suspending research into facial recognition technology due to built-in racial biases. It's hard not to be cynical these days but is this - perchance - an example of a Big Corp™ acting ethically?

Be still my heart:

Why IBM Decided to Halt all Facial Recognition Development | Lionbridge AI

Given my lifetime history with megacorporations like IBM, it would take a lot to convince me that it's suddenly developed a conscience.

Far more plausible is the explanation that facial recognition technology doesn't work as well as predicted. So, it's not going to be as profitable as predicted. So, they're making lemons into lemonade by claiming it's a moral decision.

How else to explain upcoming earnings reports to shareholders?
Tom
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
IBM announced it's suspending research into facial recognition technology due to built-in racial biases. It's hard not to be cynical these days but is this - perchance - an example of a Big Corp™ acting ethically?

Be still my heart:

Why IBM Decided to Halt all Facial Recognition Development | Lionbridge AI
Suspending R&D is avoiding rather than solving the problem.

From the link....
In a letter to congress sent on June 8th, IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna made a bold statement regarding the company’s policy toward facial recognition. “IBM no longer offers general purpose IBM facial recognition or analysis software,” says Krishna. “IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights and freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principles of Trust and Transparency.” The company has halted all facial recognition development and disapproves or any technology that could lead to racial profiling.

A hollow gesture, given that other companies still offer the product?
And as I recall from other articles on the subject, some are inferior.
IBM could be worsening the problem.
The better approach would be to improve their own product.
IBM is currently greatly cutting back on their workforce with
massive layoffs. This seems a better explanation.

Btw, some trivia....
IBM doesn't use the term "layoff".
It's called "RA" for "resource action"
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
IBM announced it's suspending research into facial recognition technology due to built-in racial biases.

It's hard not to be cynical these days
Agreed. Personally I don't see it as cynical even, but more as "being realistic"

but is this - perchance - an example of a Big Corp™ acting ethically?
Ethical

OR

Black/White, discrimination is "hot" these days
Big Corp™ does not want Big Lawsuits™
But that can't be the problem I think

Reading the article I almost believe in them
 
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stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
is this - perchance - an example of a Big Corp™ acting ethically?
Believing in a miracle like "Jesus was walking on water" is more easy than believing in "ethical facial recognition by Big Corp™."
 
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Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
IBM announced it's suspending research into facial recognition technology due to built-in racial biases. It's hard not to be cynical these days but is this - perchance - an example of a Big Corp™ acting ethically?

Be still my heart:

Why IBM Decided to Halt all Facial Recognition Development | Lionbridge AI

No, it's big tech fearing the outrage mob and kneeling.

So, I guess it's good if you like that kinda thing, but bad for our progress and future. (While this is a controversial tech, the approach may interfere with other developments.)
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Having worked in a couple of large corporations during my career, a phone company and an international bank, what I saw led me to not be totally black and white.

Of course money is a premiere motive. And people being people, selfish motives are extremely easy to find everywhere. But most are open to "doing well by doing good" especially given the financial results. Here's just one example story: Just 100 Do Well By Doing Good

Companies that succeed now don’t just do well—they do good. Increasingly, the only way to win is to treat your employees and customers as if they matter as much as your profits. The secret is that if you do that, it will pay off in more ways than you can count. It’s counter-intuitive to think you will earn more by increasing the largest cost of doing business, your payroll. But it works...

IBM was #5 here: 2018 Rankings — JUST Capital

Of course they are not saintly nor perfect, And they do lots of bad things. But I can acknowledge that without completely disparaging them.
 

bobhikes

Nondetermined
Premium Member

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Given my lifetime history with megacorporations like IBM, it would take a lot to convince me that it's suddenly developed a conscience.

Far more plausible is the explanation that facial recognition technology doesn't work as well as predicted. So, it's not going to be as profitable as predicted. So, they're making lemons into lemonade by claiming it's a moral decision.

How else to explain upcoming earnings reports to shareholders?
Tom
That's by far the most likely reason.

I'm pretty sure they didn't shelve facial recognition technology entirely. I see it resurfacing at some point in the future, and I'm pretty sure IBM would lead the charge.
 

Yerda

Veteran Member

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
Black/White, discrimination is "hot" these days
Big Corp™ does not want Big Lawsuits™
Exactly.

If an IBM product resulted in a nasty outcome, like a cop killing a black guy or a jury convicting an innocent person or whatever, the costs would be huge. In the current social climate those risks are enormous, even though they weren't just a few years ago. It wouldn't even matter if their product weren't the main problem, just getting sued by someone( and their lawyers), would be a big hit to public relations and legal expenditures. We do live in a country where the litigation lottery is big business.
Tom
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
If IBM thought it could make more money for shareholders by cooking babies in microwaves it would be doing that, I reckon.
It's best to infuse them with BBQ sauce first.
bbq-smash-bbq-sauce.jpg
 

Heyo

Veteran Member
That's by far the most likely reason.

I'm pretty sure they didn't shelve facial recognition technology entirely. I see it resurfacing at some point in the future, and I'm pretty sure IBM would lead the charge.
Yep. They announced stopping sales, no word on research.
 

Tambourine

Well-Known Member
A hollow gesture, given that other companies still offer the product?
Of course it's a hollow gesture. Why would anybody expect capitalists to suddenly find their ethics in a closet after centuries of neglect?
This is a PR move designed to head off bad publicity and to protect their brand.

That said, corporate press releases crowing progressive slogans could also be indicators for who they expect to win this conflict.
 
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