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AI models found to show language bias by recommending Black defendents be 'sentenced to death' | Euronews

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Large language models (LLMs) are more likely to criminalise users that use African American English, the results of a new Cornell University study show.

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The dialect of the language you speak decides what artificial intelligence (AI) will say about your character, your employability, and whether you are a criminal.

That’s the latest result from a Cornell University pre-print study into the "covert racism" of large language models (LLM), a deep learning algorithm that’s used to summarise and predict human-sounding texts.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4, Meta’s LLaMA2, and French Mistral 7B are all examples of large language models. Euronews Next reached out to OpenAI and Meta for comment.

The study did matched guise probing, where researchers put in prompts in both African American English and Standardised American English and asked the LLMs to identify properties of the people who would speak in both types of English.

Researcher Valentin Hofmann, from the Allen Institute for AI, said that, among the results, GPT-4 technology was more likely to "sentence defendants to death" when they speak English often used by African Americans, without ever disclosing their race.

"Our findings reveal real and urgent concerns as business and jurisdiction are areas for which AI systems involving LLMs are currently being developed or deployed,” Hofmann said in a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

The LLMs also assumed that speakers of African American English had less prestigious jobs than those who spoke Standardised English, even though the algorithms are not told that the speakers are Black.

The bigger the LLM, the better it will understand African American English, and they will be more likely to avoid overtly racist wording, the study continued. The size though doesn’t affect their covert prejudice.

Hofmann said that, because overt racism is decreasing in LLMs, there could be a risk that those interpreting the study are taking it as "a sign that racism has been solved," instead of showing that the way LLMs show racial bias is changing.

The regular way of teaching LLMs new patterns of retrieving information, by giving human feedback, doesn’t help counter covert racial bias, the study showed.

Instead, it found that it could teach language models to "superficially conceal the racism they maintain on a deeper level".

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SquirrelAmelia
208 days ago
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Knowing this is built into society is dark
Las Vegas, NV
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Wendy’s plans AI-powered menu to change food prices based on demand, weather

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A view of a Wendy's store on August 9, 2023 in Nanuet, New York.

Enlarge / A view of a Wendy's store on August 9, 2023 in Nanuet, New York. (credit: Getty Images)

American fast food chain Wendy's is planning to test dynamic pricing and AI menu features in 2025, reports Nation's Restaurant News and Food & Wine. This means that prices for food items will automatically change throughout the day depending on demand, similar to "surge pricing" in rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft. The initiative was disclosed by Kirk Tanner, the CEO and president of Wendy's, in a recent discussion with analysts.

According to Tanner, Wendy's plans to invest approximately $20 million to install digital menu boards capable of displaying these real-time variable prices across all of its company-operated locations in the United States. An additional $10 million is earmarked over two years to enhance Wendy's global system, which aims to improve order accuracy and upsell other menu items.

In conversation with Food & Wine, a spokesperson for Wendy's confirmed the company's commitment to this pricing strategy, describing it as part of a broader effort to grow its digital business. "Beginning as early as 2025, we will begin testing a variety of enhanced features on these digital menuboards like dynamic pricing, different offerings in certain parts of the day, AI-enabled menu changes and suggestive selling based on factors such as weather," they said. "Dynamic pricing can allow Wendy's to be competitive and flexible with pricing, motivate customers to visit and provide them with the food they love at a great value. We will test a number of features that we think will provide an enhanced customer and crew experience."

Wendy's is not the first business to explore dynamic pricing—it's a common practice in several industries, including hospitality, retail, airline travel, and the aforementioned rideshare apps. Its application in the fast-food sector is largely untested, and it's uncertain how customers will react. However, a few other restaurants have tested the method and have experienced favorable results. "For us, it was all about consumer reaction," Faizan Khan, a Dog Haus franchise owner told Food & Wine. "The concern was if you’re going to raise prices, you’re going to sell less product, and it turns out that really wasn’t the case."

The price-change plans are the latest in a series of moves designed to modernize Wendy's business using technology—and increase profits. In 2023, Wendy's began testing FreshAI, a system designed to take orders with a conversational AI bot, potentially replacing human workers in the process. In his discussion, Tanner also discussed "AI-enabled menu changes" and "suggestive selling" without elaboration, though the Wendy's spokesperson remarked that suggestive selling may automatically emphasize some items based dynamically on local weather conditions, such as trying to sell cold drinks on a hot day.

If Wendy's goes through with its plan, it's unclear how the dynamic pricing will affect food delivery apps such as Uber Eats or Doordash, or even Wendy's own mobile app. Presumably, third-party apps will need a way to link into Wendy's dynamic price system (Wendy's API anyone?).

In other news, Wendy's is also testing "Saucy Nuggets" in a small number of restaurants near the chain's Ohio headquarters. Refreshingly, they have nothing to do with AI.

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SquirrelAmelia
219 days ago
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How much more dystopian can food get?
Las Vegas, NV
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