
Can Computer Programs Be Racist and Sexist? - jfaat
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/03/15/470422089/can-computer-programs-be-racist-and-sexist
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thescribe
A computer program can not 'be' anything. It may produce discriminatory
output, but a computer program lacks belief in the traditional sense.

Imagine a klansman who writes "Hello World" with racist propaganda instead of
the traditional message. The program itself is not racist or sexist, it's
basically a math formulae. The klansman himself is racist.

In the case of the misclassification it could be a that a programmer held a
belief in the superiority of a race, or it could just be an error that outputs
similar to human racism.

