Wal-Mart Apologizes for Racist Software Glitch

[surrealist]

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2006-01-06/#3

Wal-Mart's attempt to mimic Amazon, NetFlix, and Blockbuster by providing an automated system that recommends movies based on the types of DVDs its customers previously ordered came to a crashing halt Thursday after blogs spread the word that the Planet of the Apes DVD was linked to "Similar Items" that included DVDs about Martin Luther King, Dorothy Dandridge, Jack Johnson and Tina Turner -- all notable African Americans. "We are heartsick that this happened and are currently doing everything possible to correct the problem," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said in a statement. "We were horrified to discover that some hurtful and offensive combinations are being mapped together. ... We are deeply sorry that this happened." The company gave no explanation for how the software program managed to select only films about African-Americans for the recommendations.

Do you guys think this was really a glitch?

[cmptrnrd16]

Ya I am willing to bet it was a glitch. Wal-Mart doesn't seem like it would have that kind of political agenda to do that on purpose. They just need to work on a better system and not let it happen again.

[McLean78]

I don't really see how it could be a software glitch.

Maybe somebody "accidentally" flagged the DVD with some type of African-American category instead of sci-fi or action or whatever, but I bet somebody was pulling a prank. Either way, somebody's getting fired.

A little off-topic, but the best pair of "similar items" I ever saw was The Bible Game and The Guy Game. Presumably it was because they're both trivia games, but damn. :laugh:

[cmptrnrd16]

Although I am young an inexpierenced, I have been coding for about 2.5 years now, and some errors that occur in programs are so random that you assume them to be illgocial. It is very possible that this is just a random occurance.

[McLean78]

Sure it's possible, but it would have to be an unlikely freak occurrance in order for them to have not caught it earlier, and an amazing coincidence that the error resulted in something that was offensive and brought on some controversy.

On the other hand, a person entering information for a new product in the database could have intentionally or accidentally input an incorrect category or content descriptor.

Either is possible, but the human error/prank seems 100x more likely to me.

[cmptrnrd16]

Either is possible, but the human error/prank seems 100x more likely to me.

Fair enough.