臉部辨識系統 有種族性別「偏見」

The majority of commercial facial-recognition systems exhibit bias, according to a study from a federal agency released recently, underscoring questions about a technology increasingly used by police departments and federal agencies to identify suspected criminals.

根據美國聯邦機構新近發表的研究結果，多數商用臉部辨識系統存在偏差，凸顯出這種科技的問題，而警察部門和聯邦機構使用這項科技辨識可疑罪犯的程度正不斷增高。

The systems falsely identified African American and Asian faces 10 times to 100 times more than Caucasian faces, the National Institute of Standards and Technology reported. Among a database of photos used by law enforcement agencies in the United States, the highest error rates came in identifying Native Americans, the study found.

國家標準及科技研究所指出，比起白人臉孔，這些系統錯誤辨識非裔美國人和亞洲臉孔的機率高出10至100倍。研究發現，在美國執法單位使用的照片資料庫中，辨識美國原住民的錯誤率最高。

The technology also had more difficulty identifying women than men. And it falsely identified older adults up to 10 times more than middle-aged adults.

這項科技辨識女性也比男性更困難，而且辨識老人的錯誤率高達中年人的10倍。

The new report comes at a time of mounting concern from lawmakers and civil rights groups over the proliferation of facial recognition. Proponents view it as an important tool for catching criminals and tracking terrorists. Tech companies market it as a convenience that can be used to help identify people in photos or in lieu of a password to unlock smartphones.

這份新報告發表之際，國會議員和公民運動團體對臉部辨識的普及正日益感到憂慮。支持者視它為抓捕罪犯和追蹤恐怖分子的重要工具，科技公司將它行銷成方便好用的東西，可辨識照片中的人或作為密碼解鎖智慧手機。

Civil liberties experts, however, warn that the technology — which can be used to track people at a distance without their knowledge — has the potential to lead to ubiquitous surveillance, chilling freedom of movement and speech. Last year, San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley in California and the Massachusetts communities of Somerville and Brookline banned government use of the technology.

然而，公民自由專家警告，這項科技能在人們不知情的狀況下從一定距離外追蹤他們，有可能導致無所不在的監控，壓抑行動和言論自由。去年，加州的舊金山、奧克蘭和柏克萊，以及麻州的薩默維爾和布魯克萊恩等社區，皆明令禁止政府使用此一科技。

“One false match can lead to missed flights, lengthy interrogations, watch list placements, tense police encounters, false arrests or worse,” Jay Stanley, a policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. “Government agencies including the FBI, Customs and Border Protection and local law enforcement must immediately halt the deployment of this dystopian technology.”

「一個錯誤的比對，就可能導致錯過班機、冗長的訊問、列入觀察名單、與警察緊張的遭遇、錯誤逮捕甚至更糟的狀況。」美國公民自由聯盟的政策分析師傑．史丹利在聲明中這麼說。「包括聯邦調查局、海關及邊境保護局和地方執法單位等政府機構，必須立即停止部署這項敵托邦科技。」

The federal report is one of the largest studies of its kind. The researchers had access to more than 18 million photos of about 8.5 million people from American mug shots, visa applications and border-crossing databases.

這份聯邦報告是同類報告中規模最大者之一。研究人員取用來自美國嫌犯大頭照、簽證申請及跨越邊境資料庫中，約850萬人的1800萬張以上的照片。

The National Institute of Standards and Technology tested 189 facial-recognition algorithms from 99 developers, representing the majority of commercial developers. They included systems from Microsoft, biometric technology companies like Cognitec, and Megvii, an artificial intelligence company in China.

國家標準及科技研究所測試來自99個開發商的189個臉部辨識演算程式，涵蓋大多數商用開發商，包括微軟系統，生物科技公司如Cognitec，以及中國人工智慧公司曠視科技。

The federal report confirms earlier studies from MIT that reported that facial-recognition systems from some large tech companies had much lower accuracy rates in identifying the female and darker-skinned faces than the white male faces.

這份聯邦報告證實麻省理工學院先前的研究結果，一些大型科技公司的臉部辨識系統，辨識女性和較深膚色臉孔的正確率，比辨識白人男性低得多。

Female Writers On the Rise in Italy

In Italy, literary fiction has long been considered a man’s game. Publishers, critics and prize committees have dismissed books by women as chick lit and beach reads. They scoffed at Elena Ferrante, the author of “My Brilliant Friend,” as the writer of mere page-turners.

在義大利，文學小說一直被視為男人的專屬領域。出版商、評論家與評獎委員會均將女性的著作貶為都會女性文學及海灘讀物。他們嘲笑《我的天才女友》作者艾琳娜．斐蘭德，說她只是個以情節見長的小說作者。

Then Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels became an international sensation, selling over 11 million copies, inspiring an acclaimed HBO series and cementing her reputation as the most successful Italian novelist in years. Her ascent, and the rediscovery of some of the last century’s great Italian female writers, has encouraged a new wave of women and shaken the country’s literary establishment. Female writers here are winning prestigious prizes, getting translated and selling copies.

然後，斐蘭德的那不勒斯小說在國際上引起了轟動，銷量超過1100萬本，啟發了HBO製作一部廣受好評的連續劇，並鞏固了她作為多年來最成功義大利小說家的名聲。她的崛起以及上世紀一些偉大義大利女性作家的重獲肯定，鼓舞了新一波女性，並且撼動了義大利文學界的既有建制。當地女作家正贏得著名獎項、作品獲翻譯為外文，而且有了可觀的銷售量。

Their achievements have set off a wider debate in Italy about what constitutes literature in a country where self-referential virtuosity is often valued over storytelling, emotional resonance and issues like sexism or gender roles.

她們的成就在義大利引起了格局更大的討論，爭辯究竟什麼才算是文學。因為在這個國家，自我指涉技巧常被置於敘事、情感共鳴、性別歧視、或性别角色等議題之上。

“Once we were more reluctant to write about certain topics, fearing they could be labeled as ‘women’s stuff,’” said Veronica Raimo, author of the novel “The Girl at the Door,” an exploration of marriage, pregnancy and sexual assault allegations that was translated into English last year. “There was this idea that stories told by women couldn’t be universal. But that’s changing.”

著有小說《門口的女孩》的薇若妮卡．雷莫說：「我們曾經不願意去寫某些主題，擔心它們被貼上『女性之物』的標籤。有種觀點認為女人說的故事不具普世性，但這一點正在改變。」這本小說去年被翻成英文，探討了婚姻、懷孕和性侵害指控。

One author to see the progress firsthand is Helena Janeczek, who has been publishing for decades but who in 2018 became the first woman in 15 years to win the Premio Strega, the country’s top literary award.

一位親眼看到這種進步的作家是艾萊娜·雅內克澤克，數十年來出書不斷的她，在前年成為15年間首位獲得該國最高文學獎斯特雷加獎的女性。

“That was quite a time gap, wasn’t it?” she said. “But I wasn’t that surprised. The times are changing.”

她說：「隔了相當久，不是嗎？但我並不感到驚訝。時代正在改變。」

The book that won her the award, published in October in English as “The Girl With the Leica,” is a historical novel about war photographer Gerda Taro, who was killed in 1937 while documenting the Spanish Civil War with her more famous boyfriend and colleague, Robert Capa.

讓她得獎的書10月出英文版，名為《拿著徠卡的女孩》，是本關於戰地攝影師葛達．塔洛的歷史小說，此人1937年跟她更為有名的男友兼同事羅伯．卡帕記錄西班牙內戰時遇害。

In the past two years, novels by women have accounted for roughly half of Italy’s top 20 bestsellers in fiction — nearly double the percentage from 2017, according to data released by Informazioni Editoriali, which surveys sales in the country’s bookshops.

根據該國書店銷量調查業者Informazioni Editoriali公布的數據，過去兩年義大利前20名暢銷小說中，女性作品約占一半，占比相較於2017年增加了近一倍。

In interviews, Italian authors, editors, critics, translators and publishers said that female writers have gained extraordinary attention. Some call it “the Ferrante effect.”

義大利作家、編輯、評論家、譯者與出版商受訪時表示，女性作家獲得了極大關注。有些人稱之為「斐蘭德效應」。

“My Brilliant Friend” and the other Ferrante novels showed that “there is a market for fiction by women,” said Daniela Brogi, a contemporary literature scholar at the University for Foreigners of Siena. “And they also gave literary dignity to fiction about women.”

錫耶納外國人大學當代文學學者達涅拉·波諾吉表示，《我的天才女友》和斐蘭德其他小說「顯示出女性所寫的小說有它的市場，並且賦予關乎女性的小說文學尊嚴。」

※說文解字看新聞【張佑生】

本文用銷售量和改編為影劇作品的盛況為「都會女性文學」（chick lit）平反，認為女性為女性閱讀所寫、主題關於女性的作品，不該被貶抑為「女人家的玩意」（women's stuff），同樣能夠放諸四海皆準（universal）。

導言後的第二段討論文學的定義。簡單說，「形式」跟「內容」孰輕孰重。小說家透過自我指涉（self -referential或自我反射"self-reflexive"）的絕技（virtuosity）所打造出的後設小說（metafiction）世界，在義大利文壇備受推崇。義大利已故文壇巨擘卡爾維諾（Italo Calvino）的名作《如果在冬夜，一個旅人》（If on a Winter's Night a Traveler）即為顯例。

優良的文學作品理應形式與內容並重，作者認為義大利長期偏重敘事技巧，以致是否好好地說個故事（storytelling）、引發讀者共鳴（resonance）、和處理性別議題反而沒受到應有的重視。在女性作家紛紛崛起（on the rise）後，文學定義在義國文壇引發熱議，現狀正在改變。