Twitter launches bug bounty contest to detect algorithmic bias

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Twitter has made plans for a bug bounty competition with a difference. This time, instead of paying researchers who reveal security issues, Twitter will reward those who find undetected examples of bias in its image-cropping algorithm.

Back in April, Twitter said it would study potential “unintended harm” caused by its algorithms, starting with its image cropping system. I started using the algorithm in 2018 to try to focus on the most interesting parts of images in previews. Some users have criticized how Twitter handles automated cropping, claiming that the algorithm tends to focus on fair-skinned people in photos.

“In May, we shared our approach to identifying bias in our prominence algorithm (also known as our image cropping algorithm), and made our code available for others to reproduce our work,” Twitter wrote in a blog post. “We want to take this work a step further by inviting and motivating the community to help identify the potential harms of this algorithm beyond what we’ve identified ourselves.”

Twitter says this is “the industry’s first algorithmic bias reward competition” and offers cash prizes of up to $3,500. Roman Chaudhry, director of the Transparency, Accountability, and Machine Learning team at Twitter, wrote in a tweet that the company is running the contest “because we believe people should be rewarded for identifying these issues, and we cannot solve these challenges on our own.” The winners will be announced at the DEF CON AI Village workshop hosted by Twitter on August 8th.

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