Algorithmic accidents at Google News have been blamed for matching the wrong photos to stories, including a really unfortunate one caught by Newsweek. Putting the right pictures with the right stories has proved a challenge to Google News. That challenge received dramatic illustration when Newsweek grabbed a screenshot of a story about the possible departure of Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons.
Google"s algorithmic choice of imagery? A pair of rhesus monkeys.
Ouch.
It also happened with departing Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O"Neal. Both men, prominent African-American executives, seemingly tagged by Google News in an exceptionally unfortunate way. "The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program," reads the disclaimer at the bottom of Google News.