The moral bias behind your search results | Andreas Ekström

Translator: Ámbar Gorretas Aymerich Reviewer: Anna Comas-Quinn

Quan vaig a una escola i parlo amb estudiants

So whenever I visit a school and talk to students,

I always ask them the same thing:

i sempre els pregunto el mateix:

Why do you Google?

"Per què cerqueu a Google?"

Why is Google the search engine of choice for you?

"Per què el trieu?"

Strangely enough, I always get the same three answers.

Sempre em donen aquestes raons:

Primera, "perquè funciona":

One, "Because it works,"

which is a great answer; that's why I Google, too.

molt bé, jo també l'utilitzo per això.

Two, somebody will say,

Segona, alguns diuen:

"I really don't know of any alternatives."

"No conec cap altra alternativa."

It's not an equally great answer and my reply to that is usually,

Aquesta no és tan bona, i normalment els hi dic:

"Try to Google the word 'search engine,'

"Posa 'motor de cerca' a Google,

you may find a couple of interesting alternatives."

i veuràs algunes bones alternatives."

L'última, però no menys important,

And last but not least, thirdly,

és la d'un estudiant, que aixeca la mà i diu:

inevitably, one student will raise her or his hand and say,

"With Google, I'm certain to always get the best, unbiased search result."

"Amb Google m'asseguro sempre els millors resultats; els més objectius."

Certain to always get the best, unbiased search result.

Segur d'obtenir sempre els millors resultats; els més objectius.

Com que sóc d'Humanitats,

Now, as a man of the humanities,

encara que d'Humanitats digitals,

albeit a digital humanities man,

that just makes my skin curl,

se'm posa la pell de gallina,

tot i que sé que aquesta confiança en la objectivitat

even if I, too, realize that that trust, that idea of the unbiased search result

és un dels pilars de l'apreci col·lectiu pel Google.

is a cornerstone in our collective love for and appreciation of Google.

I will show you why that, philosophically, is almost an impossibility.

Us explicaré per què això és, filosòficament, impossible.

But let me first elaborate, just a little bit, on a basic principle

Però primer, parlaré una mica del principi bàsic

darrere de qualsevol cerca, i que a vegades oblidem.

behind each search query that we sometimes seem to forget.

So whenever you set out to Google something,

Quan cerqueu a Google

start by asking yourself this: "Am I looking for an isolated fact?"

pregunteu-vos primer: "Busco un fet aïllat?"

Quina és la capital de França?

What is the capital of France?

Quins són els components de la molècula de l'aigua?

What are the building blocks of a water molecule?

Great -- Google away.

Perfecte. Feu servir el Google.

No hi ha cap grup de científics a punt de demostrar

There's not a group of scientists who are this close to proving

that it's actually London and H30.

que les respostes són Londres i H3O.

You don't see a big conspiracy among those things.

No hi ha cap conspiració al darrere.

We agree, on a global scale,

Estem d'acord, a escala global,

what the answers are to these isolated facts.

de les respostes a aquests fets aïllats.

Però si compliquem la cerca i busquem, per exemple,

But if you complicate your question just a little bit and ask something like,

"Per què existeix el conflicte Israel-Palestina?"

"Why is there an Israeli-Palestine conflict?"

You're not exactly looking for a singular fact anymore,

Ara ja no cerquem un fet específic,

you're looking for knowledge,

ara cerquem coneixement:

which is something way more complicated and delicate.

molt més complicat i delicat.

And to get to knowledge,

Per arribar al coneixement,

you have to bring 10 or 20 or 100 facts to the table

agafaríeu 10, 20 ó 100 fets

i diríeu, "són certs".

and acknowledge them and say, "Yes, these are all true."

But because of who I am,

Però segons qui sóc,

young or old, black or white, gay or straight,

jove o vell, blanc o negre, gay o no,

els valoraré de manera diferent.

I will value them differently.

And I will say, "Yes, this is true,

I jo diría: "Sí, això és cert,

but this is more important to me than that."

però per a mi és més important que allò."

And this is where it becomes interesting,

És aquí on comença a ser interessant,

because this is where we become human.

perquè aquí esdevenim humans.

This is when we start to argue, to form society.

Perquè comencem a debatre, a crear la societat.

And to really get somewhere, we need to filter all our facts here,

I per a arribar a algun lloc hem de filtrar els fets aquí,

entre amics, veïns, pares i fills

through friends and neighbors and parents and children

and coworkers and newspapers and magazines,

i col·legues, i diaris i revistes

to finally be grounded in real knowledge,

fins a arribar al coneixement real,

which is something that a search engine is a poor help to achieve.

que un motor de cerca no ens pot ajudar a trobar.

So, I promised you an example just to show you why it's so hard

Us he promès un exemple que demostri

com n'és de difícil arribar al coneixement real i objectiu...

to get to the point of true, clean, objective knowledge --

perquè ens faci pensar.

as food for thought.

I will conduct a couple of simple queries, search queries.

Realitzaré dues cerques senzilles.

We'll start with "Michelle Obama,"

Començarem per "Michelle Obama",

la Primera Dama dels Estats Units.

the First Lady of the United States.

Cliquem per a veure imatges.

And we'll click for pictures.

Funciona força bé, com veieu.

It works really well, as you can see.

It's a perfect search result, more or less.

És una cerca perfecta, més o menys.

It's just her in the picture, not even the President.

Només surt ella a les fotos, ni tan sols apareix el President.

How does this work?

Com funciona això?

Quite simple.

Molt senzill.

Google empra l'intel·ligència però simplement

Google uses a lot of smartness to achieve this, but quite simply,

cerca dues coses principals.

they look at two things more than anything.

First, what does it say in the caption under the picture on each website?

Primer, què surt a cada peu de foto?

Does it say "Michelle Obama" under the picture?

Diu "Michelle Obama" a sota de la foto?

Pretty good indication it's actually her on there.

Un bon indicador perquè només hi aparegui ella.

Second, Google looks at the picture file,

Segon, Google cerca, l'arxiu de la imatge,

the name of the file as such uploaded to the website.

el nom de l'arxiu que han pujat a la web.

Again, is it called "MichelleObama.jpeg"?

L'arxiu es diu "MichelleObama.jpeg"?

Pretty good indication it's not Clint Eastwood in the picture.

Bon indicador que en Clint Eastwood no hi surt a la foto.

So, you've got those two and you get a search result like this -- almost.

Si teniu això, obtindreu un resultat com aquest - gairebé.

Now, in 2009, Michelle Obama was the victim of a racist campaign,

L'any 2009 la Michelle Obama va ser víctima d'una campanya racista,

where people set out to insult her through her search results.

on la gent l'insultava mitjançant els resultats de cerca.

There was a picture distributed widely over the Internet

Havia una foto d'ella, estesa per tota la xarxa,

where her face was distorted to look like a monkey.

amb la cara distorsionada per fer-la semblar un mico.

And that picture was published all over.

Aquella foto es va publicar a tot arreu.

And people published it very, very purposefully,

I la gent la publicava amb la intenció clara

to get it up there in the search results.

de que anés pujant en els resultats de cerca.

They made sure to write "Michelle Obama" in the caption

S'asseguraven de posar "Michelle Obama" a la descripció

and they made sure to upload the picture as "MichelleObama.jpeg," or the like.

i, de pujar la foto amb el nom "MichelleObama.jpeg".

You get why -- to manipulate the search result.

Ja sabeu per què: per manipular els resultats de cerca.

And it worked, too.

I va funcionar.

So when you picture-Googled for "Michelle Obama" in 2009,

Si cercaves "Michelle Obama" per Google el 2009

that distorted monkey picture showed up among the first results.

la foto del mico deformat surtia als primers resultats.

Now, the results are self-cleansing,

Els resultats s'autonetejen

and that's sort of the beauty of it,

cosa que forma part de la bellesa de tot això:

because Google measures relevance every hour, every day.

La rellevància es calcula cada hora, cada dia.

However, Google didn't settle for that this time,

Però en aquest cas, Google no es va conformar amb això,

they just thought, "That's racist and it's a bad search result

van pensar: "això és un resultat negatiu i racista,

and we're going to go back and clean that up manually.

i l'el·liminarem manualment.

We are going to write some code and fix it,"

Escriurem un codi i ho arreglarem."

which they did.

I ho van fer.

And I don't think anyone in this room thinks that was a bad idea.

No crec que ningú en aquesta sala ho trobi malament.

Me neither.

Jo tampoc.

But then, a couple of years go by,

Però, al cap de dos anys

and the world's most-Googled Anders,

"l'Anders" més cercat a Google,

Anders Behring Breivik,

Anders Behring Breivik,

va fer el que tots sabem.

did what he did.

This is July 22 in 2011,

El 22 de juliol del 2011,

and a terrible day in Norwegian history.

va ser un dia horrible per a Noruega.

Aquest terrorista va fer volar dos edificis del govern

This man, a terrorist, blew up a couple of government buildings

walking distance from where we are right now in Oslo, Norway

a unes passes d'aquí, a Oslo, a Noruega,

and then he traveled to the island of Utøya

i va anar fins a l'illa d'Utøya,

and shot and killed a group of kids.

on va disparar i assassinar un grup de nanos.

Almost 80 people died that day.

Quasi 80 persones van morir aquell dia.

And a lot of people would describe this act of terror as two steps,

Molts descriurien aquest acte terrorista

that he did two things: he blew up the buildings and he shot those kids.

en dues parts: fer volar els edificis i assassinar els nanos.

No és veritat.

It's not true.

It was three steps.

Van ser tres parts.

Va fer explotar els edificis, va disparar als nanos,

He blew up those buildings, he shot those kids,

and he sat down and waited for the world to Google him.

i va esperar que el món el googlegés.

And he prepared all three steps equally well.

I va planejar les tres parts igual de bé.

And if there was somebody who immediately understood this,

I si va haver-hi algú que ho va entendre,

va ser un desenvolupador web suec,

it was a Swedish web developer,

a search engine optimization expert in Stockholm, named Nikke Lindqvist.

un expert en optimització de cerques d'Estocolm, Nikke Lindqvist.

He's also a very political guy

També està ficat en política,

and he was right out there in social media, on his blog and Facebook.

i en els mitjans socials, té un blog i Facebook.

Va dir a tothom,

And he told everybody,

"If there's something that this guy wants right now,

"El que aquest vol ara,

és controlar la seva imatge.

it's to control the image of himself.

Let's see if we can distort that.

A veure si la podem distorsionar.

Let's see if we, in the civilized world, can protest against what he did

A veure si el món civilitzat protesta

pel que ha fet i l'insulta amb els resultats de cerca."

through insulting him in his search results."

And how?

Però com?

He told all of his readers the following,

Va dir als seus lectors:

"Go out there on the Internet,

"Aneu a Internet,

find pictures of dog poop on sidewalks --

trobeu imatges de caques de gos...

trobeu imatges de caques al carrer...

find pictures of dog poop on sidewalks --

publish them in your feeds, on your websites, on your blogs.

i publiqueu-les al mur, a les webs, als blogs.

Make sure to write the terrorist's name in the caption,

Assegureu-vos d'escriure el seu nom a la descripció,

anomeneu l'arxiu de foto 'Breivik.jpeg.'.

make sure to name the picture file "Breivik.jpeg."

Let's teach Google that that's the face of the terrorist."

Ensenyem-li a Google com és la cara d'un terrorista."

I va funcionar.

And it worked.

Two years after that campaign against Michelle Obama,

Després de la campanya

contra Michelle Obama, la de Anders Behring Breivik va funcionar.

this manipulation campaign against Anders Behring Breivik worked.

If you picture-Googled for him weeks after the July 22 events from Sweden,

Si cercaves la seva imatge a Google després del 22 de juliol a Suècia

you'd see that picture of dog poop high up in the search results,

trobaves la imatge d'una caca de gos ben amunt als resultats de cerca,

as a little protest.

com a forma de protesta.

Strangely enough, Google didn't intervene this time.

Curiosament, Google no va intervenir.

No van entrar per el·liminar manualment aquells resultats.

They did not step in and manually clean those search results up.

So the million-dollar question,

La pregunta del milió de dòlars és:

is there anything different between these two happenings here?

en què es diferencien aquests dos casos?

Is there anything different between what happened to Michelle Obama

En què es diferencia el cas de la Michelle Obama,

and what happened to Anders Behring Breivik?

del cas de l'Anders Behring Breivik?

Of course not.

En res.

It's the exact same thing,

Són exactament el mateix,

yet Google intervened in one case and not in the other.

però Google només va intervenir en un cas

Per què?

Why?

Because Michelle Obama is an honorable person, that's why,

Perquè Michelle Obama

és honorable, i Anders Behring Breivik és menyspreable.

and Anders Behring Breivik is a despicable person.

Veieu què passa?

See what happens there?

An evaluation of a person takes place

Es jutja una persona

and there's only one power-player in the world

i només hi ha un poderòs

with the authority to say who's who.

amb autoritat per dir qui és qui.

"We like you, we dislike you.

"Ens agrades o no ens agrades."

We believe in you, we don't believe in you.

"Creiem en tu, o no hi creiem."

You're right, you're wrong. You're true, you're false.

"Ets bo, ets dolent. Vertader, o fals."

"Ets Obama, ets Breivik."

You're Obama, and you're Breivik."

That's power if I ever saw it.

Això és poder, sense cap dubte.

So I'm asking you to remember that behind every algorithm

Recordeu que darrere d'un algoritme

is always a person,

sempre hi ha una persona,

a person with a set of personal beliefs

amb una sèrie de creences personals

that no code can ever completely eradicate.

que no es poden erradicar amb cap codi.

And my message goes out not only to Google,

I el meu missatge va no només a Google,

but to all believers in the faith of code around the world.

sinó a tots els que creieu en els codis.

You need to identify your own personal bias.

Heu d'identificar els vostres prejudicis.

Heu d'entendre que sou humans

You need to understand that you are human

i actuar en conseqüència.

and take responsibility accordingly.

And I say this because I believe we've reached a point in time

I us ho dic perquè hem arribat a un punt

when it's absolutely imperative

on és absolutament imperatiu

that we tie those bonds together again, tighter:

que enfortim aquest vincle:

the humanities and the technology.

entre humanitats i tecnologia.

Tighter than ever.

Més fort que mai.

And, if nothing else, to remind us that that wonderfully seductive idea

I també per recordar-vos que la idea

of the unbiased, clean search result

meravellosa d'un resultat imparcial i net

is, and is likely to remain, a myth.

és, i seguirà sent, un mite.

Thank you for your time.

Gràcies pel vostre temps.

(Applause)

(Aplaudiments)