{"id":56122,"date":"2017-09-08T16:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T20:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/glaad-and-hrc-call-on-stanford-university-responsible-media-to-debunk-dangerous-flawed-report-claiming-to-identify-lgbtq-people-through-facial-recognition-technology\/"},"modified":"2017-09-08T16:00:28","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T20:00:28","slug":"glaad-and-hrc-call-on-stanford-university-responsible-media-to-debunk-dangerous-flawed-report-claiming-to-identify-lgbtq-people-through-facial-recognition-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/glaad-and-hrc-call-on-stanford-university-responsible-media-to-debunk-dangerous-flawed-report-claiming-to-identify-lgbtq-people-through-facial-recognition-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"GLAAD and HRC call on Stanford University & responsible media to debunk dangerous & flawed report claiming to identify LGBTQ people through facial recognition technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

GLAAD and HRC call<\/a> on Stanford University & responsible media to debunk dangerous & flawed report claiming to identify LGBTQ people through facial recognition technology<\/b><\/p>\n

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NEW YORK<\/strong> \u2013 GLAAD, the world\u2019s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation\u2019s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, today called on Stanford University and responsible media outlets to expose dangerous and flawed research that could cause harm to LGBTQ people around the world. A professor affiliated with Stanford University has published a research study that resulted in several media outlets wrongfully suggesting<\/a> that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to detect sexual orientation. Further, GLAAD and HRC today urged all media who either covered the study or plan to in future coverage to include the myriad flaws in the study\u2019s methodology — including that it made inaccurate assumptions, categorically left out any non-white subjects, has not been peer reviewed, and many other issues enumerated below.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology cannot identify someone\u2019s sexual orientation. What their technology can recognize is a pattern that found a small subset of out white gay<\/a> and lesbian<\/a> people on dating sites who look similar. Those two findings should not be conflated,\u201d said Jim Halloran, GLAAD\u2019s Chief Digital Officer<\/strong>. \u201cThis research isn\u2019t science or news, but it\u2019s a description of beauty standards on dating sites that ignores huge segments of the LGBTQ community, including people of color, transgender people, older individuals, and other LGBTQ people who don\u2019t want to post photos on dating sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halloran continued<\/strong>, \u201cAt a time where minority groups are being targeted, these reckless findings could serve as weapon to harm both heterosexuals who are inaccurately outed, as well as gay<\/a> and lesbian<\/a> people who are in situations where coming out is dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

HRC Director of Public Education and Research Ashland Johnson, said, <\/strong>“This is dangerously bad information that will likely be taken out of context, is based on flawed assumptions, and threatens the safety and privacy of LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ people alike. Imagine for a moment the potential consequences if this flawed research were used to support a brutal regime\u2019s efforts to identify and\/or persecute people they believed to be gay<\/a>. Stanford should distance itself from such junk science rather than lending its name and credibility to research that is dangerously flawed and leaves the world — and this case, millions of people\u2019s lives — worse and less safe than before.”<\/p>\n

GLAAD and HRC called attention to the following points included in the research:<\/p>\n