When You Forget, I'll Remember, Chapter 14

Dawn, low gold light, mist on the lake, ginkgo leaves on the grey stone. Grandpa Chen, eighty-one, in his grey cardigan, sits alone on his stool at the stone table at the LEFT, three-quarter towards the viewer's RIGHT, lifting his LEFT wrist towards his mouth to speak to the cream band, its small orange light glowing; his RIGHT hand lies flat on his knee. His face is patient and puzzled, waiting for an answer. On the table the carved board with a few pieces, his thermos on the ground by his stool, and the empty stool across from him. Behind, the calm lake and the soft garden towers. The big quiet misty sky in the top third is the area for the title. One face. No writing anywhere.

Chapter 14第十四章Not Everyone Is Heard没被听见的人

Monday 12 October, seven in the morning, clear early sun, a thin mist on the lake, the ginkgo leaves turning yellow. A calm wide view of the row of stone tables under the willows. At the LEFT table Grandpa sits on his stool bent over the carved board, his thermos on the ground; at the next table in the RIGHT middle distance Mrs Bai sits upright on a stool, lifting her LEFT wrist towards her mouth, the cream band glowing. The garden towers are soft across the lake. Two small faces; the people are solid and opaque. The big quiet sky above is the area for the captions.

October 2037. Everyone at the lake now talked to their wristbands, and Willow, the city's care helper, answered.2037年10月。湖边人人都对着手环说话，市里的照护助手小柳有问必答。

Grandpa spoke Bridge City dialect, as he always had.外公说了一辈子桥城话。

Same clear morning. Close on Mrs Bai, very upright, silver-white hair in a neat low bun, a lilac cardigan over a white blouse, her LEFT wrist raised to her mouth with the cream band glowing, looking down at it with a broadcaster's calm poise, a small satisfied smile. She looks RIGHT. One face low in the frame; the pale willow sky above is the quiet area.

‹Sunny and twenty-one degrees, Mrs Bai. A fine day for chess.›白奶奶，今天晴，二十一度，正好下棋。

Same morning. Close on Grandpa, glasses on their cord at his chest, his LEFT wrist raised to his mouth with the cream band's orange light dim, looking down at it, hopeful. He looks LEFT at his wrist (the opposite eyeline to Mrs Bai's). His face in the middle of the panel; the willow leaves behind are the quiet area.

‹Willow, where have my glasses gone?›小柳，你晓得我眼镜放哪儿了？

Same morning. Grandpa is half risen from his stool at the LEFT, indignant, holding his LEFT arm out at arm's length and glaring at the band on that wrist, the orange light glowing; his glasses swing on their cord at his chest, so the answer is right there (the reader sees it, Willow does not). At the RIGHT, at the next table, Mrs Bai hides a smile behind her RIGHT hand. Two faces in the upper middle band; the grey stone below is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Sorry, Mr Chen. I didn't catch that. Please speak standard Mandarin.›抱歉，陈爷爷，我没听清。请您说普通话。

‹I've spoken like this for eighty-one years!›我这么说话，说了八十一年了！

Monday, a quarter past seven, the same gold early sun through the willows. Grandpa sits on his stool at the LEFT, glancing sideways at Xiaoyu, holding his LEFT wrist out towards her. Xiaoyu, on her way to the lab with a canvas tote on her LEFT shoulder, bends over his wrist at the RIGHT and speaks to the cream band, which glows. Two faces in the middle band; the willow above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Willow, where are Grandpa's glasses?›小柳，外公的眼镜在哪儿？

‹On the cord round your neck, Mr Chen.›陈爷爷，眼镜就挂在您脖子上。

Same light. Close on Grandpa lifting the glasses on their cord a little from his chest with his RIGHT hand, sour, looking RIGHT at Xiaoyu off panel. His face in the middle of the panel; the willow behind is the quiet area.

‹So Willow understands you, but not me.›它听得懂你，偏偏听不懂我。

Same morning. Close on Auntie Zhang, short and sturdy, grey short hair, standing at the RIGHT end of the stone table with a packed cloth travel bag over her RIGHT shoulder, cheerful, looking LEFT. Her face in the middle of the panel; the willow behind is the quiet area.

‹My daughter's baby is due, so I'm going home for ten days.›我闺女快生了，我得回去待十天。

Same morning. Xiaoyu at the LEFT rests her RIGHT hand on Auntie Zhang's arm; Auntie Zhang at the RIGHT, her travel bag on her RIGHT shoulder, smiles up at her gratefully. Two faces in the middle band; the willow above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Go, Auntie Zhang. I will talk to Willow for Grandpa.›您去吧，张阿姨。外公要跟小柳说什么，我替他说。

‹Thank you, Xiaoyu. When Willow doesn't understand us, I just press the call button on its box.›好孩子。小柳要是听不懂咱们，我就按它盒子上那个呼叫键。

Same morning. Grandpa sits on his stool at the LEFT, side-on and facing RIGHT towards the carved board, moving a piece with his RIGHT hand and not looking at Xiaoyu, hurt under the grumble. Xiaoyu stands at the RIGHT beyond the board, her smile fading. Two faces in the upper middle band; the grey stone below is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Talk for me? I still have a mouth of my own.›替我说？我自己没长嘴？

Monday, eight in the evening, the one warm lamp on, the balcony glass deep blue. Grandpa sits in the olive armchair at the LEFT beside the wooden side table, on which stand the old brown radio and, in front of it, the cream big-button night phone with one big red round button. Xiaoyu sits at the round folding table at the RIGHT with a bowl of rice and chopsticks. On the table stand Willow's white pill box, its orange light glowing and a small flat round call button beside the light, and, to its LEFT, the old Lantern speaker, dull. Two faces in the middle band; the dim wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque; reflections only on empty glass.

‹From 1 November the night phone line will close. At night, speak to me instead.›十一月一日起，夜间电话专线停用。夜里有事，请直接跟我说。

Beside Grandpa's chair was the old phone. Pressing its red button called a night carer.外公椅子边有部老电话。按一下上面的红键，夜班护理员就会来。

Same lamp. Close on Grandpa now sitting at the round table, the fingertips of his RIGHT hand resting on the old, dull Lantern speaker, looking down at it fondly. His face in the upper middle of the panel; the dim table below is the quiet area.

‹The little Lantern always knew where my glasses were. Haoran, who started Lantern, built it with us old men.›这个小灯啊，我眼镜搁哪儿它都知道。当年是创办小灯的浩然，带着我们几个老头子一块儿做的。

Same lamp. Close on Xiaoyu at the round table, chopsticks held still in her RIGHT hand over the bowl, worried, looking LEFT at Grandpa off panel. Her face in the middle of the panel; the dim wall behind is the quiet area.

With the phone line gone, nobody would be there at night to speak to Willow for him.电话专线一停，夜里就没人替他跟小柳说话了。

I wanted Willow to hear Grandpa in his own voice before the first of November.赶在十一月一日以前，我要让小柳听懂外公亲口说的话。

Tuesday 13 October, eight in the morning, clear morning light. Xiaoyu stands side-on at the RIGHT of the balcony by the rail, her sky-blue phone held to her RIGHT ear the ordinary way, listening; the lake and the soft garden towers beyond. Pot plants on the rail. One face in the middle band; the pale sky above is the quiet area.

I called Lantern, the company that runs Willow, to complain. A machine answered, and it understood every word I said.我打电话给运营小柳的小灯公司投诉。接电话的是台机器，我说什么它都听得懂。

‹Thank you for calling Lantern. Your feedback has been recorded.›感谢致电小灯，您的意见已记录。

Wednesday 14 October, six in the evening, dusk at the balcony glass, the lamp on. Ms Ye, about forty, a navy blazer over a cream blouse and a small round orange enamel pin on her lapel, sits at the round table at the LEFT holding her tablet in its dark blue case upright in her LEFT hand, so we see only the back of the case and its glow on her face. Xiaoyu sits at the RIGHT. Grandpa sits small and side-on in the olive armchair in the far LEFT background. Willow's white pill box glows beside the dull Lantern speaker on the table. Three faces in the middle band, Grandpa's small. The people are solid and opaque.

‹I'm Ye Lan, from Lantern. On average, Willow gets ninety-six in a hundred.›我是小灯的叶岚。平均一百句，小柳能懂九十六句。

Same dusk, the lamp. Close on Ms Ye, kind and confident, looking RIGHT at Xiaoyu off panel, the small round orange enamel pin on her lapel (plain, no letters). Her face in the middle of the panel; the dim wall behind is the quiet area.

‹That's above our target. Mr Chen may just need practice.›这已经超过我们的指标了。陈老先生可能只是要多练练。

Same dusk. Close on Grandpa in the olive armchair, looking RIGHT across the room towards Ms Ye off panel, one eyebrow up, dry. His face in the middle of the panel; the dim wall behind is the quiet area.

‹Practice? I am eighty-one. Let the machine practise.›我练？我都八十一了。叫机器练去！

Same dusk, a moment later. Xiaoyu close at the round table, looking down at the table, unsure. Her face in the upper middle of the panel; the lamplit table below is the quiet area.

Ninety-six in a hundred. It sounded like a good number.一百句懂九十六句。听起来挺不错的。

Thursday 15 October, two in the afternoon, white afternoon light through the tall windows. Professor Lin stands at her standing desk by the window at the LEFT, reading her laptop, whose back is to us with its glow on her face. Xiaoyu stands at the RIGHT, her canvas bag on her LEFT shoulder. Two faces in the middle band; the pale wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Professor Lin, Willow can't understand my grandfather's dialect.›林老师，小柳听不懂我外公的桥城话。

‹One old man is only one case, Xiaoyu. For research, I would need a thousand old people.›小雨，一个老人只是个例。做研究，得有一千个老人。

Same white light. Close on Professor Lin, looking RIGHT at Xiaoyu off panel over the top of her laptop, cool and exact. Her face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

‹Even with a thousand, what would we test? Bring me a question, not a complaint.›就算有一千个老人，又测什么呢？带个问题来，别光发牢骚。

Same afternoon. Close on Teo at the long desk, turned towards the viewer's RIGHT so we see his RIGHT ear with the small clear earbud in it, quiet and exact, looking RIGHT at Xiaoyu off panel. His face in the middle of the panel; the pale window wall behind is the quiet area.

Then ask whose voices Lantern recorded to teach Willow.那就先问问，小灯训练小柳的时候，录的是谁的声音。

Same afternoon, at the long desk by the window. Teo at the LEFT has turned in his chair to the whiteboard behind the desk and points at it with a marker in his RIGHT hand; Xiaoyu at the RIGHT looks at it. On the whiteboard, drawn simply in black marker: a long row of about twelve young round faces, each with a wavy sound line from its mouth, and at the end of the row ONE old face with white hair and a single small wavy line, circled in red. No letters or numbers on the board. Two faces low in the lower middle of the panel; the whiteboard and window above are the quiet area for the box. The people are solid and opaque.

WHO WAS RECORDED. A machine that turns speech into words learns from recordings of people talking, matched with what they said. Voices it rarely heard, it understands worse. For example, a voice assistant trained mostly on grown-ups often cannot understand a four-year-old.录了谁的声音。语音识别模型靠听录音来学，每段录音都配着说话的原文。哪种声音录得少，它就听得差。比如一个语音助手主要拿大人的声音训练，碰上四岁的孩子，就常常听不懂。

A speech model hears best the voices it heard most.语音模型平时听哪种声音最多，就最听得懂哪种。

Saturday 17 October, ten in the morning, bright light through the balcony glass. At the round table Grandpa sits at the LEFT with his glasses ON, holding a printed list in his RIGHT hand, reading it; we see only the back of the list. Xiaoyu sits at the RIGHT with her own copy lying flat on the table and her sky-blue phone lying beside it face up, seen edge-on, recording. Willow's white pill box glows beside the dull Lantern speaker. Two faces in the middle band; the pale wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

On Saturday I tested Willow with twenty everyday requests. First Grandpa said them, then I did.星期六，我拿二十句家常话考小柳。外公先说一遍，我再说一遍。

Same bright morning. Close on Grandpa at the round table, his LEFT wrist raised towards his mouth with the cream band, reading the first line off the list held low in his RIGHT hand (we see its back), glasses on his nose, looking down at the band. His face in the middle band; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

‹Willow, call my daughter Huihui.›小柳，给我女儿慧慧打个电话。

‹Sorry, Mr Chen. I didn't catch that. Please speak standard Mandarin.›抱歉，陈爷爷，我没听清。请您说普通话。

Same morning. Close on Grandpa, firmer, the list lowered in his RIGHT hand, his LEFT wrist raised towards his mouth, looking at the band. His face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

‹Willow, turn the light on.›小柳，把灯开开。

Same morning. Close on Grandpa's LEFT wrist resting on the round table, the cardigan cuff above it, the cream band's orange light glowing as Willow speaks; behind it at the LEFT edge Willow's white pill box, and a few soft music notes drifting up from it. No face. The pale table around is the quiet area.

‹Playing some calming music for you, Mr Chen.›陈爷爷，为您播放一段舒缓的音乐。

Same morning. Grandpa is on his feet at the LEFT, both hands up in comic despair, the list flapping in his RIGHT hand. Xiaoyu at the RIGHT laughs despite herself, her LEFT hand over her mouth. Two faces in the upper middle band; the floor and the table below are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹I'm calm! I want the light!›我不用舒缓！我要的是灯！

Sunday 18 October, nine in the morning. Close on Xiaoyu's sky-blue phone lying on the round table, its cracked corner at the top RIGHT, its screen filling the panel and showing one plain message painted BLANK, the words lettered in afterwards. No person. The pale wood around it is the quiet area.

On Saturday night I had sent Ms Ye my results. Willow understood 7 of Grandpa's 20 requests, and all 20 of mine.星期六晚上，我把测试结果发给了叶岚。外公说的二十句，小柳只听懂七句。我说的二十句，它全听懂了。

Thank you, Miss Zhou. One old man who forgets things does not show that Willow has a problem. From 1 November, nights will be voice only: the night phone line closes, as planned. Ye Lan, Lantern周小姐您好，感谢反馈。一位老先生记性不好，说明不了小柳有问题。十一月一日起夜里只能对话音控制，夜间电话专线按计划停用。叶岚　小灯

Same Sunday morning. Close on Xiaoyu sitting at her desk, holding her phone in her LEFT hand low in front of her, so we see only its back, reading, angry, looking down. Her face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

Grandpa's memory was not the trouble. He asked for the light in perfectly clear words.问题不在外公的记性。他要开灯，说得清清楚楚。

Sunday 18 October, six in the evening in Bridge City, eleven in the morning in Edinburgh. Over Xiaoyu's RIGHT shoulder from behind, her ponytail in the LEFT foreground, as she sits on her bed holding her phone in both hands; on the phone's lit screen, small and clear, Mama at fifty-two sits at her Edinburgh kitchen table in morning light, in a navy jumper, tired. One face (Mama's, small). The dim room around is the quiet area.

Can't Grandpa just press the button on Willow's box?让外公按一下小柳盒子上的按钮，不就行了？

Same evening. Xiaoyu close on her bed, the phone lowered to her lap in both hands with its back to us, looking at the floor, her mouth tight. Her face in the upper middle of the panel; the dim quilt below is the quiet area.

At night, Mama? What if he cannot reach the box?半夜呢，妈？他要是够不着盒子怎么办？

Everyone wanted Grandpa to change how he talks. Nobody asked the machine to change.大家都要外公学着说普通话，可从没人要机器学桥城话。

Tuesday 20 October, 2.04 in the morning, dark, only her desk lamp. Xiaoyu sits at her desk in her sleep clothes (a big grey t-shirt and loose dark trousers) with the moss-green cardigan pulled on over them, her laptop open with its back to us, her head lifting as she hears something. A few soft music notes rise from the floor at the bottom of the panel. One face in the middle band; the dark wall above is the quiet area.

At four minutes past two in the morning, music came up through the floor.凌晨两点零四分，地板底下传上来一阵音乐。

soft music轻音乐

Same dark room, the desk lamp. Close on Xiaoyu, still, listening, her eyes on the floor. Her face in the middle of the panel; the dark wall behind is the quiet area.

Mr Sun lives on the floor below us. He never plays music at night.楼下是孙爷爷家。他夜里从来不放音乐。

Same night. The landing bulb a small warm glow, the stairs dark below. Xiaoyu hurries down the stairs in cloth slippers, her RIGHT hand on the rail, her LEFT hand holding her phone low as a torch, its light on the steps. One face, three-quarter. The dark wall behind is the quiet area. No line.

Same night, 2.12 in the morning, the dark green metal gate of the third-floor flat swung wide open, only a little light from the box. Inside, Mr Sun sits on the floor just inside his door with his back against the wall, in a grey knitted vest over a pale blue pyjama shirt, pale, his LEFT wrist in his lap with the cream band glowing. On the small square table behind him Willow's white box glows and plays soft music; its small call button is out of his reach. Xiaoyu crouches at the open gate at the RIGHT. Two faces in the middle band; the dark wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque. The gate is swung OPEN against the wall (not bars across anyone); Xiaoyu crouches in the gateway on the landing side, Mr Sun sits inside his flat.

‹I asked Willow for a doctor three times. It played me a song.›我叫它喊郎中，喊了三遍，它给我放歌。

Same night. Mr Sun sits against the wall at the LEFT facing us, leaning on Xiaoyu's shoulder, his eyes half closed. Xiaoyu kneels at his LEFT side (the viewer's RIGHT of him), holding his LEFT forearm up gently in both hands so the glowing band is near her mouth. Two faces in the upper middle band; the wall and the floor below are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque. Both are just inside the flat; the gate behind them is still OPEN.

‹Willow, Mr Sun is very ill. Call the night doctor now.›小柳，孙爷爷病得厉害，快叫夜班医生！

‹Calling the night doctor now.›正在呼叫夜班医生。

Same night, 2.30 in the morning, the room light on, plain and bright. Dr He kneels at the LEFT with her open bag, a dark navy coat over her white jacket, her RIGHT hand on Mr Sun's shoulder. Mr Sun sits against the wall in the middle with a blanket round him, a little better. Xiaoyu kneels at the RIGHT holding his RIGHT hand. Three faces in the middle band; the plain wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

Dr He, the night doctor, came within minutes.夜班的何医生几分钟就到了。

Mr Sun was on the floor, and his night phone was by his bed, out of reach. Only his wristband could call for help.孙爷爷倒在地上，床头的夜间电话够不着。能替他叫人的，只剩手环。

Same night, the room light on. Close on Xiaoyu bending towards Mr Sun's white Willow box on the small table, asking it, very level. Her face and the box's soft glow. Her face in the middle of the panel; the plain wall behind is the quiet area.

‹Willow, what did Mr Sun say to you tonight?›小柳，孙爷爷今晚跟你说了什么？

Same night. Close on Willow's white box on the small square table, its orange light glowing, its small call button beside the light, the son's framed graduation photo blurred on the wall behind. No face. The plain wall is the quiet area.

‹At 2.04, 2.07 and 2.10, Mr Sun spoke. I did not understand, so I played calming music.›两点零四分、零七分和十分，孙爷爷说过话。我没有听懂，所以播放了舒缓的音乐。

Six in the morning, grey dawn at the small window, the kitchen bulb on. Grandpa sits at the small table at the LEFT in his cardigan, a tea glass in his RIGHT hand. Xiaoyu sits at the RIGHT, exhausted, her moss-green cardigan on over her sleep clothes. Two faces in the middle band; the wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

Mr Sun stayed two nights in hospital to be checked, and came home all right.孙爷爷住院观察了两晚，平平安安回家了。

‹Old Sun has talked this way for eighty-three years. It is the machine that is deaf.›老孙这么说了八十三年话。聋的是机器！

Same grey dawn. Xiaoyu sits alone at the small kitchen table, both hands round a tea glass, looking down. One face in the upper middle of the panel; the table and the dim floor below are the quiet area. A feeling picture.

I had been speaking for Grandpa, and only for Grandpa. Nobody had spoken for Mr Sun.我只顾着替外公说话。孙爷爷，谁也没替他开过口。

Tuesday 20 October, three in the afternoon, white light. Xiaoyu sits at the long desk at the RIGHT with her laptop open (its back to us), her forehead resting on her LEFT hand. Teo stands at the LEFT, setting a paper cup of tea down by her RIGHT hand. Two faces in the middle band; the pale wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

All afternoon I thought of that number.那天下午，我老想着那个数。

Same white light. Close on Xiaoyu lifting her head from her hand, the idea arriving, looking at the laptop off panel. Her face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

Ninety-six in a hundred, on average. So who are the other four?平均一百句懂九十六句。那剩下的四句，是谁说的？

Same afternoon. Close on Teo, turned towards the viewer's RIGHT so we see his RIGHT ear with the clear earbud, looking RIGHT at Xiaoyu off panel, quiet and exact. His face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

If those four requests all come from one kind of person, the average hides them.要是那四句都是同一类人说的，一平均，他们就看不见了。

Same afternoon at the long desk. Teo at the LEFT holds up a printed sheet in both hands, its front turned to Xiaoyu and to us; Xiaoyu at the RIGHT, upright now, looks at it. On the sheet, drawn simply with no letters or numbers: on its left half ONE tall grey bar, almost full height; on its right half the same bar split into four thinner bars, three tall and ONE much shorter, the short one circled in red. Two faces low in the lower middle of the panel; the sheet is held at chest height, and the bright wall above is the quiet area for the box. The people are solid and opaque.

WHAT AN AVERAGE CAN HIDE. In 2018 researchers tested three companies' face programs that guess sex from a photo. On lighter-skinned men they were wrong at most 0.8 percent of the time, on darker-skinned women up to 34.7 percent.平均数藏住的人。2018年，研究者测了三家公司从照片判断男女的人脸识别程序。浅肤色男性最多错0.8%，深肤色女性最高错34.7%。

Face programs were tested like that.人脸识别就这么分组测过。

Same afternoon. Xiaoyu stands up from the desk, her phone in her RIGHT hand, decided, looking down and LEFT at Teo off panel. Her face in the upper middle of the panel; the pale floor below is the quiet area.

Then I will test Willow group by group. A hundred people, ten sentences each.那我就分组测小柳。找一百个人，每人说十句。

Tuesday 20 October, nine at night, the desk lamp. Over Xiaoyu's LEFT shoulder from behind, her ponytail in the RIGHT foreground, as she sits at her desk holding her phone in both hands; on the phone's lit screen, small and clear, Lili in a small radio studio in Shanghai, foam on the walls, a microphone arm beside her, black headphones round her neck, grinning. One face (Lili's, small). The dim room around is the quiet area.

I called Lili, my old classmate, who now makes radio programmes in Shanghai.我打电话给丽丽。她是我小学同学，现在在上海做电台节目。

‹A hundred old Bridge City people talking into a microphone? You need me.›一百个桥城老人对着话筒说话？这事你得找我。

Same night. The phone screen alone fills the panel: Lili close on it in her studio, serious now, headphones round her neck. Her face in the middle of the panel; the foam wall behind her is the quiet area.

‹Grandma shouts at her Willow every day. It never understands her.›我奶奶天天冲小柳喊，它也从没听懂过。

Same night. Close on Xiaoyu looking down at the phone held in her hands (we see only the back), a rueful smile. Her face in the middle of the panel; the dim wall behind is the quiet area.

‹You speak Bridge City dialect. I never learned it.›你会说桥城话，我一直没学会。

Same night. The phone screen alone fills the panel again: Lili laughing, pointing at the camera with her RIGHT forefinger, black headphones round her neck. Her face in the upper middle of the panel; the foam wall below her is the quiet area.

‹At eleven I laughed at your accent. Now a machine can't understand ours.›十一岁那年我笑你口音，现在倒好，机器听不懂我们的了。

‹I'm coming home on Saturday. This will be my best programme of the year.›星期六我就回来。这准是我今年最好的一期节目。

Saturday 24 October, seven in the morning, gold low sun, the ginkgo leaves yellow on the stone. Grandpa sits on his stool at the LEFT looking up, delighted. Xiaoyu stands in the middle holding a clipboard of forms in her LEFT hand, its back to us. Lili arrives at the RIGHT with a small backpack, her recorder in her RIGHT hand, her black headphones round her neck. Three faces in the middle band; the willows above are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

Lili came home on Saturday morning.星期六一早，丽丽回来了。

‹Little Wang Lili! You used to tease our Xiaoyu.›这不是王家丽丽嘛！小时候你老笑话我们小雨。

Same gold light. Grandpa stands by the stone table, his RIGHT hand cupped beside his mouth, calling towards the other tables off panel at the LEFT, proud and loud. His face in the middle of the panel; the willows behind are the quiet area.

‹I taught half this park to play chess! Come and talk to these girls!›这公园里一半的人，棋是我教的！都过来，跟这两个丫头说说话！

Same morning. Close on Auntie Zhang, back from her daughter's, her cloth bag on her shoulder, holding a small photo of a baby up in her LEFT hand towards the people at the RIGHT, so we see only the photo's back, looking RIGHT, then sobering. Her face in the middle of the panel; the willows behind are the quiet area.

‹Willow has never understood my accent. I thought it was my own fault.›小柳从来听不懂我的口音。我还当是我自个儿的毛病。

Same morning. Auntie Zhang at the LEFT and Xiaoyu at the RIGHT, Xiaoyu taking both of Zhang's hands in hers, close. Two faces in the upper middle band; the grey stone path below is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹So I stopped asking Willow anything. I only press the call button on the box.›后来我什么都不问它了。有事，就去按盒子上的按钮。

Same morning, at the next stone table. Lili at the LEFT holds her recorder in her RIGHT hand, its foam end towards Mrs Bai; Mrs Bai sits at the RIGHT, laughing, her silver bun neat; Xiaoyu stands between them, a little behind, holding the clipboard of forms in her LEFT hand. Three faces in the middle band; the willows above are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Mrs Bai, you read the news for thirty years. Will you lead the Mandarin group?›白奶奶，您播了三十年新闻，普通话组请您带个头？

Saturday 24 October, nine in the morning, hazy light, the red pillars, ginkgo leaves on the stone steps. Grandpa sits at the round stone table in the middle, a signed form lying face down by his RIGHT hand, his LEFT wrist on the table. Lili sits on the stone bench at the LEFT, holding her recorder in her RIGHT hand a hand's width from his mouth, its foam end towards him. Xiaoyu sits on the bench at the RIGHT with the list in her lap and her hands still. Three faces in the middle band; the dark roof beams above are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

We recorded in the pavilion where Haoran, who started Lantern, had once tested his first little speaker.我们在凉亭里录音。当年创办小灯的浩然，就在这儿试过他做的第一个小音箱。

This time I did not speak for Grandpa.这一回，我没有替外公说话。

‹Willow, where are my glasses?›小柳，你晓得我眼镜在哪儿吗？

Same hazy light. Close on Grandpa, the foam tip of the recorder entering at the LEFT edge, chin up, proud, speaking past the list. His face in the middle of the panel; the dark roof beams behind are the quiet area.

‹I'm Chen. I taught chess by this lake for forty years. Write that down, machine.›我姓陈。我在这湖边教了四十年棋。机器，你给我记下来。

Same hazy light. Close on Teo standing by a red pillar at the RIGHT (he came to carry the gear), almost full-face to us, turned only slightly to the LEFT, his RIGHT hand raised to the clear earbud in his RIGHT ear (on the viewer's LEFT side of his head), baffled, glancing LEFT at Grandpa off panel. His face in the middle of the panel; the dark roof beams behind are the quiet area.

My earbud cannot understand your grandfather either.连我的耳机都听不懂你外公。

Same hazy light. Grandpa at the LEFT grins and wags his RIGHT forefinger at Teo; Teo at the RIGHT, his clear earbud in his RIGHT ear, looks back at him amazed. A tiny glow at Teo's ear. Two faces in the middle band; the dark roof beams above are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Then learn some Bridge City dialect, young man.›那你就学点桥城话嘛，小伙子。

Not understood.无法识别。

Saturday, the afternoon going gold. On the pavilion steps in the middle distance Mrs Bai and Auntie Zhang wait their turn, chatting, small in the frame; ginkgo leaves on the steps, the red pillars behind. No crowd, nobody else. Two small faces in the upper middle band; the steps and the path below are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

Grandpa had taught half the park chess, so when he asked, they came. By Monday morning we had a hundred people and a thousand sentences.外公教过半个公园的人下棋，他一招呼，大家都来了。到星期一早上，我们录下了一百个人、一千句话。

Sunday 25 October, four in the afternoon, warm low light through the balcony glass. Mr Sun sits at his small square table in the middle in his pale yellow checked shirt buttoned to the top, home and recovered, the cream band on his LEFT wrist. Lili stands at the LEFT with her recorder lowered in her RIGHT hand. Xiaoyu sits at the RIGHT with a form in her hands. On the wall behind, the framed photo of his son in a graduation gown. Three faces in the middle band; the pale wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Mr Sun, may I tell the story of the night you were ill on my radio programme, using your real name?›孙爷爷，您那天夜里生病的事，我想在我的电台节目里讲，用您的真名，行吗？

Same warm light. Close on Mr Sun, looking up and LEFT at his son's photo off panel, quiet. His face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

‹Use my name. My son works far away. Let him hear his father.›用吧，就用我的名字。我儿子在外地，让他听听他爸的声音。

Same warm light. Close on Xiaoyu looking LEFT at Mr Sun off panel, sliding the form across the table with her RIGHT hand, whose back is to us. Her face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

‹Only for our study and Lili's programme, Mr Sun. Nothing else, ever.›孙爷爷，只用在我们的研究和丽丽的节目里，别的地方一律不用。

Same warm light. Lili at the LEFT holds the recorder in her RIGHT hand, the foam end a hand's width from Mr Sun's mouth; Mr Sun at the RIGHT speaks into it, his LEFT hand flat on the table by his band. Two faces in the upper middle band; the table below is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹My name is Sun. Five years ago, a little Lantern told me to ask my doctor about my pills.›我姓孙。五年前，我问小灯吃药的事，它叫我先去问郎中。

Monday 26 October, ten at night, the lab dark but for two desk lamps, the dark campus outside. On the long desk between them stands the test rig, a small black speaker on a stand playing to Willow's cream band set on a little white stand beside it, a thin cable running to Teo's laptop. Teo at the LEFT and Xiaoyu at the RIGHT watch their laptops, whose backs are to us, the glow on their faces. Two faces in the middle band; the dark window wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

Teo and I played all one thousand sentences to Willow, one by one, and counted what it understood.我和特奥把一千句话一句一句放给小柳听，数它听懂了多少。

One day I want to look inside Willow and see where Grandpa's words get lost.总有一天，我要钻进小柳里面看看，外公的话是在哪儿丢的。

Close on Xiaoyu's laptop screen filling the panel, a plain three-row table painted BLANK, the words lettered in afterwards. No person. The dark desk around it is the quiet area.

Young people, standard Mandarin. 99 in 100 understood.年轻人，普通话。100句听懂99句。

Older people, standard Mandarin. 95 in 100 understood.老人，普通话。100句听懂95句。

Older people, Bridge City dialect. 61 in 100 understood.老人，桥城话。100句听懂61句。

Same night, the desk lamp. Close on Teo, turned towards the viewer's RIGHT so we see his RIGHT ear with the clear earbud, quiet, looking RIGHT at Xiaoyu off panel. His face in the middle of the panel; the dark window behind is the quiet area.

The ninety-six was true. Too few old people like your grandfather to move it.九十六没算错。像你外公这样的老人太少，拉不动平均数。

Tuesday 27 October, nine in the morning, white light. Close on Professor Lin at her standing desk, reading a printed page held in her RIGHT hand so we see only its back, one eyebrow up, then looking RIGHT. Her face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

‹A thousand sentences, group by group. That is research. Publish it.›一千句话，分组统计。这才叫研究。拿去发表吧。

Same morning at the long desk by the window. On the windowsill behind them stand two pot plants: at the LEFT a lush green plant with a big green watering can beside it, at the RIGHT a drooping, thirsty plant with brown-edged leaves and only a small empty cup beside it. Teo at the LEFT and Xiaoyu at the RIGHT both look round at the drooping plant, thoughtful; her laptop is open with its back to us. Two faces low in the lower middle of the panel; the window above the plants is the quiet area for the box. The people are solid and opaque.

Lantern only counted requests. Auntie Zhang stopped asking, so she never counted.小灯只数说出口的话。张阿姨早不问了，所以从没被算上。

COUNTING THE WRONG THING. In 2019 researchers studied a program US hospitals used to pick patients for extra care. It treated past spending as need. Less had been spent on Black patients who were just as ill, so it picked too few of them.数错了东西。2019年，研究者调查了美国医院挑病人做额外照顾的程序。它把过去的医疗花费当成需要。同样病重的黑人病人以往花得少，被挑中的也少。

Wednesday 28 October, nine in the evening, the one warm lamp. Grandpa sits in the olive armchair at the LEFT, leaning towards the old brown radio on the side table beside him, the cream night phone in front of it. Xiaoyu sits on the arm of the sofa against the RIGHT wall, and Auntie Zhang sits on the sofa at the far RIGHT, both turned towards the radio. Willow's white box glows beside the dull Lantern speaker on the round table between. Three faces in the middle band; the dim wall above is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

On Wednesday our study went online. That night Lili's programme went out across the country.星期三，我们的研究在网上发布了。当天夜里，丽丽的节目在全国播出。

Same night. Close on the old brown radio on the side table, its round dial lit warm, Grandpa's RIGHT hand on the tuning knob at the edge of the panel, a smooth manga hand. No face. The wooden table below is the quiet area.

‹I'm Chen. I taught chess by this lake for forty years. Write that down, machine.›我姓陈。我在这湖边教了四十年棋。机器，你给我记下来。

Same night. Close on Grandpa, his eyes wet, a laugh starting, looking RIGHT at the radio off panel. His face in the middle of the panel; the dim wall behind is the quiet area.

‹That is me, on the radio! Xiaoyu, record it and keep a copy.›这是我呀，上广播了！小雨，录下来，自己留一份。

Same night. Close on the old brown radio again, the dial a little dimmer, the cloth speaker grille filling the lower half. No person. The dark wall above is the quiet area.

‹I'm Sun. Five years ago, a little Lantern told me to ask my doctor about my pills.›我姓孙。五年前，我问小灯吃药的事，它叫我先去问郎中。

‹This month I asked Willow for a doctor three times, and it played me a song.›这个月，我叫小柳喊郎中，喊了三遍，它给我放歌。

Later the same night, the lamp low. Grandpa sits in the olive armchair at the LEFT with the red notebook open on his knee, writing with the short pencil in his RIGHT hand; we see only the notebook's back cover. One face in the upper middle of the panel; the blanket and the dim floor below are the quiet area. A feeling picture.

By the next morning, the whole country was talking about Lantern and the people Willow could not hear.第二天早上，全国都在议论小灯，议论那些小柳听不懂的人。

Friday 30 October, ten in the morning, bright. Ms Ye sits at the round table at the LEFT with her tablet lying face down on the table and her hands folded, tired and honest. Grandpa sits small in the olive armchair in the far LEFT background. Xiaoyu sits at the RIGHT. Willow's white box glows beside the dull Lantern speaker. Three faces in the upper middle band; the table below is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹The night phone line stays open. Lantern has stopped its plan to make nights voice only in every city.›夜间电话专线不关了。小灯原本要在所有城市让夜里只能跟小柳说话，现在这个计划都暂停了。

‹Willow plays music when it can't understand a caller at night, because most night calls are lonely people.›夜里遇到听不懂的人，小柳就放音乐，因为半夜找它的，大多是孤单的人。

Same bright morning. Close on Ms Ye looking down at her folded hands, the small round orange pin on her lapel. Her face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

‹My own mother loves Willow. I never asked who it could not hear. I am sorry.›我妈妈就很喜欢小柳。我从来没问过，它听不懂谁。对不起。

Same morning. Close on Grandpa in the olive armchair, looking RIGHT at Ms Ye off panel, not unkind. His face in the middle of the panel; the pale wall behind is the quiet area.

‹Don't say sorry to me. Say it to Old Sun, downstairs.›别跟我道歉。去跟楼下的老孙说。

Same morning. Close on Ms Ye, practical again, looking RIGHT at Xiaoyu off panel. Her face in the upper middle of the panel; the wall and the table below are the quiet area.

‹Give us your thousand recordings, and Willow will understand Bridge City dialect by spring.›把那一千句录音给我们，到开春，小柳就能听懂桥城话了。

Same morning at the round table. Ms Ye at the LEFT, Xiaoyu at the RIGHT shaking her head, calm. Between them on the table lies one printed page face up, turned so we can read its picture: two pairs of grey bars with a red arrow from the left pair to the right pair; in the left pair one bar is tall and one very short, in the right pair the two bars are almost the same height. No letters or numbers on it. Two faces low in the lower middle of the panel; the bright wall above is the quiet area for the box. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Those hundred people agreed to a study, not to Lantern. Ask them, and pay them.›那一百个人答应的是研究，不是小灯。要用，自己去问，还得付钱。

PUBLIC TESTS WORK. Within months of the 2018 face test, every company it named had narrowed its gap.公开测试管用。2018年的人脸测试公布后几个月，被点名的公司都缩小了差距。

Sunday 1 November, seven in the morning, clear, ginkgo leaves on the stone. Grandpa sits on his stool at the LEFT; Auntie Zhang sits on the far stool facing us; Xiaoyu stands at the RIGHT. At the next table, small in the middle distance, Mr Sun plays chess with Mrs Bai. Three clear faces, the other two small. The willows above are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

On 1 November the night phone line was still open.十一月一日，夜间电话专线还开着。

Lantern now published how well Willow heard each group of people, Bridge City dialect included.小灯开始分组公布小柳的成绩，桥城话也单列一组。

Same clear morning. Close on Grandpa, his LEFT wrist raised towards his mouth, the cream band dim, asking. Beside him at the edge of the panel Xiaoyu's hands stay in her lap (she does not repeat it for him). His face in the middle of the panel; the willows behind are the quiet area.

‹Willow, will it rain today?›小柳，今天落不落雨？

Same morning. Close on Grandpa's LEFT wrist resting on the edge of the stone table, the cardigan cuff above it, the cream band's orange light glowing as Willow speaks. No face. The grey stone around it is the quiet area.

‹Sorry, Mr Chen. I didn't catch that. I will understand Bridge City dialect by spring.›抱歉，陈爷爷，我没听清。到开春，我就能听懂桥城话了。

Same morning. Grandpa at the LEFT leans towards the band on his LEFT wrist, mock stern, eyes twinkling. Auntie Zhang at the RIGHT leans in towards the band too, her eyebrows up. Two faces in the middle band; the willows above are the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque.

‹Sorry, Willow. I didn't catch that. Please speak Bridge City dialect.›抱歉，小柳，我没听清。请你说桥城话。

‹By spring? And how do you know that?›到开春？你怎么知道？

Same morning. The three laugh together low in the picture, Grandpa at the LEFT, Auntie Zhang in the middle, Xiaoyu at the RIGHT. Grandpa holds up in both hands a long medicine-box leaflet that has unfolded and hangs down past his knees, covered in rows of tiny grey lines with no readable letters; the small white pill box it came out of sits on the stone table. Three faces in the lower middle of the panel; the lake and the willows above are the quiet area for the box. The people are solid and opaque.

SHOWING RESULTS FOR EACH GROUP. Researchers have proposed that every AI program come with a short report of how well it works for different groups of people, and what it should not be used for. The collection of examples it learned from would also say who gathered it, how and why.分组报成绩。研究者提议，每个人工智能程序都附一份简短的说明，写清它对不同人群效果如何，哪些事不该用它来做。它学习用的那批例子，也要写明由谁收集、怎么收集、为什么收集。

Thursday 10 December, four in the afternoon, San Francisco, a calm conference room with tall windows onto a grey-blue bay. Xiaoyu stands small at a plain wooden lectern at the LEFT, in her navy wool coat over the moss-green cardigan. Behind her a big wall screen, painted BLANK and lettered afterwards, fills the wall for the room. We sit among the audience, with only the backs of four or five heads in the near foreground and no crowd of faces. One clear face (hers). The tall windows and the bay at the RIGHT are the quiet area.

In December Professor Lin sent me to San Francisco to present our study at a conference.十二月，林教授派我去旧金山，在一个会议上讲我们的研究。

"Give the talk, then come straight back to work," she told me.“讲完就回来，接着干活。”她说。

96 in 100. Who are the other 4?100句听懂96句。另外4句是谁说的？

Same afternoon. Close on Xiaoyu at the lectern, both hands on its edges, steady, looking RIGHT at the audience off panel. Her face in the middle of the panel; the pale window light behind is the quiet area.

Ninety-six in a hundred sounds fair, until you ask who the other four are.一百句懂九十六句，听上去很公平。直到你问一句，剩下那四句是谁说的？

Same day, after the talk, the room emptying (no people but him). Haoran, twenty-three, leans by the door at the back, a dark grey wool coat open over his charcoal jacket and white t-shirt, square black glasses, arms folded, waiting. He is three-quarter to the viewer's LEFT, so we see his LEFT ear with the one wired white earbud in it. One face. The plain wall and door behind are the quiet area. The hall door at the back is SHUT; he stands inside the room beside it.

After the talk, Haoran, who started Lantern, was waiting by the door.讲完以后，浩然等在门口。小灯就是他创办的。

Same moment at the door. Xiaoyu at the LEFT stops dead, her black laptop bag on her LEFT shoulder; Haoran at the RIGHT straightens up from the wall, facing LEFT, so we see his LEFT ear with the white earbud. Two faces in the upper middle band; the floor below is the quiet area. The people are solid and opaque. The hall door behind them is still SHUT; both stand inside the room.

Hello, Xiaoyu. I read your study the day it came out. Twice.小雨，你好。你们的研究一出来我就看了，看了两遍。

Thursday night, eleven o'clock, clear and cold, on the hotel rooftop. From behind, the two stand at the low pale stone parapet at the RIGHT (backs and heads only, Xiaoyu at the LEFT of the pair in her navy coat, Haoran at the RIGHT in his grey coat), two paper cups of tea on the parapet. Beyond, the steep hills of low pastel houses with lit windows and a long lit bridge far off on the bay. No faces. The big quiet night sky above is the area for the caption.

We talked all night on the roof of the hotel.那一夜，我们在酒店楼顶聊到了天亮。

Same night. Close on Haoran, city glow on his face, looking LEFT at Xiaoyu off panel, so we see his LEFT ear with the one white earbud in it. His face in the middle of the panel; the dark sky behind is the quiet area.

My little Lantern understood your grandpa.当年的小灯听得懂你外公。

Same night, the same framing, quieter, his eyes lowered a little, still looking LEFT, his LEFT ear with the white earbud in view. His face in the middle of the panel; the dark sky behind is the quiet area.

Willow never learned voices like his. I only looked at the ninety-six.小柳没学过他那样的口音。我只盯着九十六这个数。

Friday 11 December, the first grey light before dawn behind her. Xiaoyu close in her navy coat and grey scarf, a laugh with wet eyes, looking RIGHT at Haoran off panel. One face in the upper middle of the panel; the pale sky below the horizon line is the quiet area.

Now Lantern is gathering every old voice we can find.现在小灯正在收集老人的声音，能找到多少，就收多少。

Grandpa still keeps your little Lantern beside his teacup. He says it understood him.你做的那个小灯，外公到现在还摆在茶杯旁边。他说，它听得懂他。

Dawn, seven o'clock, pale gold over the bay. From just inside the rooftop stair door: Mira stands in the lit doorway at the LEFT, three-quarter to the viewer's RIGHT, in a camel coat, two paper coffee cups held in both hands against her chest, watching. Beyond her at the RIGHT, small at the parapet, Xiaoyu and Haoran turn to each other, their backs half to us. Mira's face is the clearest thing: still, unreadable, not angry. The quiet pale sky above is the area for the captions. The people are solid and opaque. The rooftop stair door is propped OPEN with Mira standing in it, the lit stairwell behind her and the roof in front.

Years later I learned that Mira, Haoran's partner at Lantern, had stood in the doorway that morning, holding two coffees.很多年以后我才知道，那天早上，米拉端着两杯咖啡，在门口站过。她是浩然创办小灯的搭档。

Next: Chapter 15. Whose Voice?下一章：第十五章谁的声音？

The ideas, a little slower

The park, the night and the recordings are in the pictures. Here are the ideas in words.

On pages 1 and 5 Willow cannot hear Grandpa, and Teo says why. A machine that learns from examples copies the patterns in them. If the examples are lopsided, so are the patterns, and an unfair world can be repeated at great scale with the look of neutral arithmetic. Researchers describe four ways bias gets in. It can come in through who is in the data, through how the data is labelled, through what the goal measures, and through how the system is used. A speech recogniser learns from recordings paired with what was said. Whisper, for example, learned from 680,000 hours of audio with transcripts gathered from the web (Radford and colleagues, 2022). The research gives one plain example, a voice assistant trained mostly on grown-up speech that struggles with a four-year-old. The story's Bridge City dialect, and Willow's trouble with it, are made up to show this pattern. The research does not report a study of Chinese dialects or of older speakers.

On page 10 the team asks who the other four are. This is the idea of the chapter. In 2018 Joy Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru built a test set of photos of parliament members, balanced by sex and by skin type, and tested three commercial programs that guess a person's sex from a face (from IBM, Microsoft and Face++). All three did best on lighter-skinned men and worst on darker-skinned women. The worst error on darker-skinned women was 34.7 percent, against at most 0.8 percent on lighter-skinned men. The main reason was that the common training and test sets were mostly lighter-skinned faces. A good overall score had hidden it. That is Xiaoyu's question, "who are the other four?", and her move is to count each group on its own.

On page 15 the hospital program counts the wrong thing. In 2019 Ziad Obermeyer and colleagues studied a widely used American program that chose patients for extra care. It used past health spending as a stand-in for need. Less had been spent on Black patients with the same illness, so the program judged them healthier than they were. When the researchers built a version that predicted health more directly, the share of Black patients flagged for extra help rose from 17.7 to 46.5 percent. The program predicted cost correctly. Cost was the wrong thing to predict. The link to the story is that Lantern counted the requests Willow understood, and a person who had given up, like Auntie Zhang, made no requests to count. In 2018 Reuters also reported that an experimental hiring tool at Amazon, trained on ten years of mostly men's CVs, marked down CVs that contained the word "women's" (Dastin, 2018).

On page 17 a public test works. In 2019 Inioluwa Deborah Raji and Joy Buolamwini tested the same companies again after Gender Shades came out, and every audited company had reduced its gap within months. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology ran a much larger study the same year (Grother, Ngan and Hanaoka, 2019). It also found differences between demographic groups for many face recognition programs, and much smaller ones for the most accurate programs.

On page 18 the answer is to report it by group. Margaret Mitchell and colleagues proposed model cards in 2019, short reports of how a model performs for different groups of people and what it should not be used for. Timnit Gebru and colleagues proposed datasheets for datasets in 2021, a record of how a dataset was made, by whom and for what. There are other responses too. People audit and red-team systems, rebalance data or adjust thresholds (each of which builds in a choice), write laws, and keep a person responsible for important decisions. The summary from the experts is that bias cannot be removed once and for all, but it can be measured, reduced and kept visible.

One last sentence for families. If a voice assistant often fails to understand someone you love, the gap is the machine's, not theirs. Tell the maker, and always keep a way to call a person for help that does not depend on being understood by a machine.

What is true here

Fair, but which fair?

In 2016 Julia Angwin and colleagues at ProPublica reported that a score used in American courts to predict who would be arrested again, COMPAS, made different kinds of mistakes for Black and white defendants, and the company that made it replied with a different measure of fairness. The same year Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullainathan and Manish Raghavan, and in 2017 Alexandra Chouldechova, proved that when two groups have different base rates, a score cannot satisfy several natural definitions of fairness at once, except in unrealistic cases. So fairness is a choice about which errors matter most, and that choice is about values, not only maths.

Words carry it too

In 2016 Tolga Bolukbasi and colleagues showed that word embeddings had learned "man is to computer programmer as woman is to homemaker", and later work found that the bias stayed hidden in other directions even after the obvious one was removed. In 2017 Aylin Caliskan, Joanna Bryson and Arvind Narayanan found that word embeddings reproduce human implicit associations. In 2023 Federico Bianchi and colleagues found that image generators drew mostly light-skinned men for "a software developer", and that asking for the opposite did not reliably fix it.

The law, as of 2026

The European Union's AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) treats systems used in hiring, education, credit and policing as high-risk. As of October 2026 a 2026 amending regulation had postponed the main high-risk duties to 2 December 2027 for stand-alone systems and to 2 August 2028 for systems built into regulated products.

SourcesBuolamwini and Gebru (2018), Gender shades.Raji and Buolamwini (2019), Actionable auditing.Grother, Ngan and Hanaoka (2019), FRVT Part 3, Demographic effects (NISTIR 8280).Obermeyer, Powers, Vogeli and Mullainathan (2019), Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations.Dastin (2018), Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women, Reuters.Angwin, Larson, Mattu and Kirchner (2016), Machine bias, ProPublica.Kleinberg, Mullainathan and Raghavan (2016), Inherent trade-offs in the fair determination of risk scores.Chouldechova (2017), Fair prediction with disparate impact.Bolukbasi and colleagues (2016), Man is to computer programmer as woman is to homemaker?Caliskan, Bryson and Narayanan (2017), Semantics derived automatically from language corpora contain human-like biases.Bianchi and colleagues (2023), Easily accessible text-to-image generation amplifies demographic stereotypes at large scale.Mitchell and colleagues (2019), Model cards for model reporting.Gebru and colleagues (2021), Datasheets for datasets.Radford and colleagues (2022), Robust speech recognition via large-scale weak supervision (Whisper).European Union (2024), Regulation (EU) 2024/1689; European Union (2026), Regulation (EU) 2026/1744.

What is pretend

Bridge City, its dialect and everyone in it are made up. So is the whole world of 2037, with its garden towers and solar boats. Willow, its voice service, its night music and every word it says are made up, and so are the night phone line and its closing. Lantern, its "ninety-six in a hundred", its pause and its promise to understand Bridge City dialect by spring are made up. The home test, Mr Sun's night (no illness is meant), the hundred speakers, the thousand sentences and every result on the laptop screen are made up too. So are Lili's radio programme, the conference in San Francisco, Ms Ye, Mrs Bai, Mira, Professor Lin's lab and Teo. The research has measured this same pattern with faces, words, images and health and hiring programs, and the studies named in the boxes are real. It does not report a study of Chinese dialects, and the story's numbers about them are invented to show the pattern. The story is set a few years from now and imagines a hopeful future. Grandpa's memory is drawn from no one in particular, and the story makes no medical claim.

Who made this

Yingying Fu created this manga. She chose the story and its people, directed every page, and edited every word and picture. The words were drafted with Claude, an AI by Anthropic. The pictures are made with AI image generation, painted panel by panel from her direction and checked and corrected by hand.

再慢慢讲一遍

公园、那个夜晚和那些录音，都在画里了。背后的道理，这里用文字再讲一遍。

第一页和第五页，小柳听不懂外公，特奥说了原因。机器从例子里学习，就会照搬例子里的规律。例子偏了，学到的规律也跟着偏。一旦大规模使用，现实里的不公平就会被成批复制，表面上却像不偏不倚的计算。研究者总结过偏差进来的四条路：数据里收了谁，数据怎么标注，目标衡量的是什么，系统怎么使用。语音识别模型靠配有文字的录音来学。比如Whisper，用的是从网上收集的68万小时带文字稿的音频（拉德福德等人，2022年）。研究里有个很浅显的例子，一个语音助手主要拿大人的声音训练，听四岁孩子说话就很吃力。故事里的桥城话，以及小柳听不懂桥城话，都是为了说明这条规律编的。我们依据的研究里，没有涉及中国方言或老年人的语音。

第十页，小雨问，剩下那四句是谁说的。这是整章的关键。2018年，乔伊·布奥兰维尼和蒂姆尼特·格布鲁用各国议员的照片组了一套测试集，性别和肤色类型都配平，拿去测三家公司（IBM、微软和旷视）根据人脸判断性别的商用程序。三个程序都是认浅肤色男性最准，认深肤色女性最差。深肤色女性的错误率最高达到34.7%，浅肤色男性最多只有0.8%。主要原因在于，常用的训练集和测试集里大多是浅肤色的面孔。漂亮的总成绩把问题盖住了。小雨问“剩下那四句是谁说的”，问的正是这个。她的办法，就是把每一组单独算一遍。

第十五页，医院用的程序数错了东西。2019年，齐亚德·奥伯迈耶等人研究了美国一个用得很广的程序，它负责挑出需要额外照护的病人。程序拿病人过去的医疗花费，来代表他们需要多少照护。病情一样重的黑人病人，过去花在他们身上的钱少，程序便以为他们比实际更健康。研究者另做了一个更直接预测健康状况的版本，被挑出来接受额外帮助的人里，黑人的比例从17.7%升到了46.5%。原来的程序把花费预测得很准，可花费本来就不该拿来预测。放回故事里，小灯数的是小柳听懂了多少句，而张阿姨那样早就不再开口的人，根本没留下可数的句子。另外，路透社2018年报道过，亚马逊试验过一个招聘工具，拿十年来多半是男性的简历训练，结果给含有“女子”一词的简历扣分（达斯廷，2018年）。

第十七页，公开测试起了作用。《性别阴影》发表以后，伊尼奥卢瓦·黛博拉·拉吉和乔伊·布奥兰维尼在2019年又把那几家公司测了一遍，被点名的公司都在几个月内缩小了差距。同一年，美国国家标准与技术研究院做了一项规模大得多的研究（格罗瑟、恩甘和花冈，2019年）。它同样发现，许多人脸识别程序在不同人群之间有差异，而最准的那些程序，差异要小得多。

第十八页，办法是分组报成绩。玛格丽特·米切尔等人2019年提出了“模型卡”，用一份简短的说明写清模型在不同人群上的表现，以及哪些事不该用它来做。蒂姆尼特·格布鲁等人2021年提出了“数据集说明书”，记下一个数据集由谁做、怎么做、为什么做。应对的办法还有不少：审计系统，请人做“红队”攻击测试，重新配平数据或调整判定门槛（每一种做法都暗含一个取舍），立法，以及让人为要紧的决定负责。专家的总结是，偏差没法一劳永逸地消除，但可以测量，可以减少，也可以一直摆在明处。

最后再叮嘱一句。如果语音助手总听不懂你的家人，毛病出在机器，不在他们。请告诉厂家。另外，一定要给家人留一条能直接找到真人的求助渠道，不靠机器听不听得懂。

哪些是真的

公平，是哪一种公平？

2016年，ProPublica的朱莉娅·安格温等人报道，美国法庭用来预测被告会不会再次被捕的评分系统COMPAS，在黑人和白人被告身上犯的错误类型不同。开发它的公司则拿另一种公平标准作了回应。同一年，乔恩·克莱因伯格、森德希尔·穆莱纳坦和马尼什·拉加万证明，两个群体的基础比率不同时，除了一些不现实的特殊情况，一个评分不可能同时满足几种看似都很自然的公平定义。2017年，亚历山德拉·乔尔德乔娃也证明了这一点。所以，公平其实是在选哪种错误更要紧。这是价值观的选择，不只是数学问题。

词语里也藏着

2016年，托尔加·博卢克巴希等人发现，词向量学会了“男人之于程序员，正如女人之于家庭主妇”这样的类比。后来的研究还发现，就算去掉最明显的那个偏差方向，偏差仍会藏在别的方向里。2017年，艾琳·卡利斯坎、乔安娜·布赖森和阿尔温德·纳拉亚南发现，词向量会重现人类的内隐联想。2023年，费德里科·比安基等人发现，让图像生成程序画“软件开发者”，画出来的多半是浅肤色男性，就算明确要求画相反的人，也不一定管用。

法律，截至2026年

欧盟《人工智能法案》（条例2024/1689）把用于招聘、教育、信贷和警务的系统列为高风险系统。截至2026年10月，2026年的一项修订条例已推迟了高风险系统的主要义务。独立系统推迟到2027年12月2日，嵌入受监管产品的系统推迟到2028年8月2日。

出处Buolamwini and Gebru (2018), Gender shades.Raji and Buolamwini (2019), Actionable auditing.Grother, Ngan and Hanaoka (2019), FRVT Part 3, Demographic effects (NISTIR 8280).Obermeyer, Powers, Vogeli and Mullainathan (2019), Dissecting racial bias in an algorithm used to manage the health of populations.Dastin (2018), Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women, Reuters.Angwin, Larson, Mattu and Kirchner (2016), Machine bias, ProPublica.Kleinberg, Mullainathan and Raghavan (2016), Inherent trade-offs in the fair determination of risk scores.Chouldechova (2017), Fair prediction with disparate impact.Bolukbasi and colleagues (2016), Man is to computer programmer as woman is to homemaker?Caliskan, Bryson and Narayanan (2017), Semantics derived automatically from language corpora contain human-like biases.Bianchi and colleagues (2023), Easily accessible text-to-image generation amplifies demographic stereotypes at large scale.Mitchell and colleagues (2019), Model cards for model reporting.Gebru and colleagues (2021), Datasheets for datasets.Radford and colleagues (2022), Robust speech recognition via large-scale weak supervision (Whisper).European Union (2024), Regulation (EU) 2024/1689; European Union (2026), Regulation (EU) 2026/1744.

哪些是虚构的

桥城、桥城话和城里所有的人都是虚构的，2037年的整个世界也是，包括长满花园的高楼和太阳能小船。小柳、它的语音服务、它夜里放的音乐和它说的每一句话，都是编的。夜间电话专线和专线要关的事，也是编的。小灯、它的“一百句懂九十六句”、它暂停服务，还有“开春前听懂桥城话”的承诺，都是编的。家里那次测试、孙爷爷的那个夜晚（不指任何一种病）、一百位录音的人、一千句话，还有笔记本电脑屏幕上的每个结果，也都是编的。丽丽的广播节目、旧金山的会议、叶岚、白奶奶、米拉、林教授的实验室和特奥，同样是虚构的。研究者确实在人脸、词语、图像，以及医疗和招聘程序上测出过同样的规律，方框里提到的研究也都是真的。但这些研究没有涉及中国方言，故事里关于方言的数字，是为了说明这条规律编的。故事发生在几年以后，想象的是一个充满希望的未来。外公的记忆问题不取材于哪个具体的人，故事也不作任何医学上的论断。

谁做了这本漫画

这本漫画由 Yingying Fu 创作。故事和人物由她决定，每一页由她导演，每一句话、每一幅画由她修改。文字是和 Anthropic 的人工智能 Claude 一起起草的。画面由人工智能生成，按她的要求一格一格地画，再逐张检查、修正。

When You Forget, I'll Remember你忘了，我记得