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Incident 216: WeChat’s Machine Translation Gave a Racist English Translation for the Chinese Term for “Black Foreigner”

Description: The Chinese platform WeChat provided an inappropriate and racist English translation for the Chinese term for “black foreigner” in its messaging app.

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Entities

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Alleged: WeChat developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Black WeChat users.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
216
Report Count
5
Incident Date
2017-10-10
Editors
Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
GMF, MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

1.1. Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Discrimination and Toxicity

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceWeChat Apologizes for Translating ‘Black Foreigner’ as N-WordChina's Most Popular App Apologizes After Translating 'Black Foreigner' as the N-Word+1
China's WeChat app translates 'black foreigner' to N-word
WeChat translates 'black foreigner' into the N-word
WeChat Apologizes for Translating ‘Black Foreigner’ as N-Word

WeChat Apologizes for Translating ‘Black Foreigner’ as N-Word

sixthtone.com

China's Most Popular App Apologizes After Translating 'Black Foreigner' as the N-Word

China's Most Popular App Apologizes After Translating 'Black Foreigner' as the N-Word

gizmodo.com

China's WeChat app translates 'black foreigner' to N-word

China's WeChat app translates 'black foreigner' to N-word

theguardian.com

WeChat translates 'black foreigner' into racial slur

WeChat translates 'black foreigner' into racial slur

bbc.com

WeChat translates 'black foreigner' into the N-word

WeChat translates 'black foreigner' into the N-word

independent.co.uk

WeChat Apologizes for Translating ‘Black Foreigner’ as N-Word
sixthtone.com · 2017

Chinese messaging app WeChat has apologized for an error in its algorithm that provided the N-word as a translation for a neutral Chinese term for black foreigners.

“We’re very sorry for the inappropriate translation,” a WeChat spokesperson…

China's Most Popular App Apologizes After Translating 'Black Foreigner' as the N-Word
gizmodo.com · 2017

The translation service in China’s biggest messaging app, WeChat, is being retooled after offering a racist slur as a translation for the phrase “black foreigner.”

Ann James, a black theater director based in Shanghai, messaged her colleagu…

China's WeChat app translates 'black foreigner' to N-word
theguardian.com · 2017

China’s most popular chat app has apologised after its software used the N-word to translate a Chinese phrase that commonly means “black foreigner”.

WeChat, which has almost 900 million users, blamed the use of the racial slur on an error i…

WeChat translates 'black foreigner' into racial slur
bbc.com · 2017

Chinese messaging app WeChat has apologised after its software used the N-word as an English translation for the Chinese for "black foreigner".

The company blamed its algorithms for producing the error.

It was spotted by Ann James, a black …

WeChat translates 'black foreigner' into the N-word
independent.co.uk · 2017

WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, has apologised for translating “black foreigner” into the N-word.

It was noticed by Ann James, a black American director and actor who featured in China’s highest-grossing film ever, this summer’s Wolf War…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
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