A Ring camera mistook a 911 dispatcher in California to be “A dark animal walking on the porch.” Not only was she shocked to be referred to as an animal, but she was also quite offended that the camera’s AI categorized her as “dark” because of her skin color. On Reddit, tens of thousands shared their frustration with the woman over how ridiculous this AI-powered identification was.
The Ring camera’s identification feature comes as a “forced free trial of AI descriptors,” according to the dispatcher’s post on r/mildlyinfuriating. Going by the name deathtodickens, she explained that when she was leaving for work, the camera “identified me, a Black person, as ‘a dark animal’ walking on my porch.” She claims she was already planning to replace her Ring camera soon, but this incident with the AI has really sped up her decision.
Hundreds of Redditors Claim Their Ring Camera’s AI Can’t Properly Identify People Either
Based on the comments in the post, the Ring’s AI misidentifying people as objects or animals is not an uncommon occurrence. “Mine identifies my father-in-law as a package. Every. Single. Time,” remarked a commenter. “My camera thought i’m a horse… this is just funny to me,” added another. “Our bug guy is a big tall dreaded black man, and my ring camera said ‘there’s a black bear walking on the driveway.’” recalled a third. One person even referred to the Ring’s AI identification as “wireless racism” in reference to a scene from the sitcom Community with the front door detector.
Comical AI mistakes aside, the Ring camera’s service has already been in hot water, with the Super Bowl ad last month stirring up a lot of controversy. Even the California dispatcher in this story said they weren’t a fan of how Ring was allegedly cooperating with ICE. The majority of commenters also agree that the identification technology is still underdeveloped, poking fun at how poorly it identifies people.
That all being said, the dispatcher believes her skin color has an effect on the Ring’s AI, even though there’s no official evidence besides her and other people’s stories. “It identified the mail carrier putting mail in the box just fine. If it can do all that, you’d think it could see me walking across my porch and know I’m human” she sighed.
