Wal-Mart software makes racist suggestions

A WAL-MART WEB STORE feature that creates movie recommendations has been shut down after it started making racist suggestions.

Apparently, if you took out a Planet of the Apes DVD the site would suggest that you would also like films about African-Americans including Martin Luther King Jr.

The problems were made public when someone started circulating a screenshot on the Interweb showing Wal-Mart store making suggestions about similar items to a boxed DVD set, Planet Of The Apes: The Complete TV Series. The software suggested four movies about the lives of Martin Luther King Jr, actress Dorothy Dandridge, boxer Jack Johnson and singer Tina Turner.

Wal-mart acted swiftly to manually change the site so that the Planet of the Apes set linked to Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond and Star Wars.

But it became clear that the software had a mind of its own and was making other links that Wal-Mart wished it didn't.

In a statement, a spokes-Mart admitted Walmart.com's item mapping process "does not work correctly and, at this point, is mapping seemingly random combinations of titles. We were horrified to discover that some hurtful and offensive combinations are being mapped together.

"We are deeply sorry that this happened," she added.

Other African American films were being randomly linked to titles such as Home Alone and Power Puff Girls, Polar Express and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. µ

L'INQ
USA Today