Microsoft’s AI journalists mix up multiracial Little Mix singers

Microsoft’s AI made a mistake this week that’s created quite a bit of tension. The AI software, which now selects images for MSN, confused Little Mix singers Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock. On a story which ran on MSN.com, a picture of Pinnock was used instead of Thirlwall. The mix up led to criticism as both stars are multiracial, leading to accusations of racism by MSN (via The Guardian). The misused image is particularly inflammatory as the article that had the incorrect image was about Thirlwall experiencing ‘horrific’ racism while at school.

Thirlwall expressed her frustration on her Instagram story, stating, “@MSN If you’re going to copy and paste articles from other accurate media outlets, you might want to make sure you’re using an image of the correct mixed race member of the group.” She also stated, “This shit happens to @leighannepinnock and I ALL THE TIME that it’s become a running joke,” adding, “It offends me that you couldn’t differentiate the two women of colour out of four members of a group … DO BETTER!”

Sources at Microsoft spoke with The Guardian regarding the post, stating that the incorrect image was selected by Microsoft AI software, which is used to edit parts of Microsoft’s news site.

Microsoft recently decided to fire several human journalists and to replace them with AI. The incorrect image in the article comes at a particularly bad time, as racial tensions flair up in the United States and around the world. Thirlwall recently attended a Black Lives Matter protest in London and shared her experiences with racism at school.

When asked about the incorrect image use, a Microsoft spokesperson said, “As soon as we became aware of this issue, we immediately took action to resolve it and have replaced the incorrect image.”

One Microsoft member of staff shared their thoughts on the incident with The Guardian, stating, “With all the anti-racism protests at the moment, now is not the time to be making mistakes.”

The unfortunate error could have been caused by a wide range of factors. As pointed out by The Verge, the mistake could be caused by mislabeled pictures provided by wire services.

According to The Guardian, the human staff members at MSN have been warned that coverage critical of the incident could be pushed to the MSN homepage by the AI. Reportedly, the staff have been told to remove the stories covering the AI mix up if the AI does this.