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Biontech vaccine: How Google turns a vaccination researcher into a "wife"

2020-11-10T15:32:43.779Z


The doctor Özlem Türeci is largely responsible for the development of a possible corona vaccine. However, the Google search turned the top researcher into a "wife of". Why is that?


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Özlem Türeci with her spouse Uğur Şahin: "These systems are not always perfect"

Photo: Stefan F. So¤mmer / imago images / Sämmer

If the world is currently looking at Germany, then it is also down to a couple of researchers.

Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin are developing a vaccine for the coronavirus with their Mainz company Biontech and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

The couple was able to report their first successes on Monday: Interim results from an important study phase showed that their vaccine offered 90 percent protection against Covid-19, it said.

In the media, Biontech was hailed for the promising news.

The focus was often mainly on Uğur Şahin.

The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" was happy about the "vaccine inventor", the television station n-tv was enthusiastic about the "humble visionary", the "Bild" newspaper even believed it had found the "father of the German vaccine miracle" to have.

Anyone looking for the "mother of miracles" had to search through the texts for her - or enter her name on Google.

Wife through search engine

However, a similar picture emerged there.

In the info box, the so-called "Knowledge Panel", which Google automatically generates for certain search queries, Türeci was last listed as "Uğur Şahin's wife".

In contrast to her husband, who is correctly referred to as "CEO, BioNTech".

Özlem Türeci is a recognized cancer researcher with twenty years of professional experience.

The daughter of a Turkish doctor heads the department for clinical development at Biontech, is the chairman of a top research cluster of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the president of CIMT, the largest European association for cancer immunotherapy.

This discrepancy caused criticism in social networks.

Google spokesman Kay Oberbeck responded on Twitter with a brief announcement: "It's our turn, thanks for the hint."

On Tuesday afternoon, the abbreviation from Türeci to wife was changed in Google's short summary biography.

For the group, the degradation is one of many "inaccuracies" that can occur within the information boxes.

"Just as we have automatic systems that collect facts for the knowledge panel, we also have systems that are supposed to prevent inaccuracies from occurring," wrote a spokeswoman.

"However, these systems are not always perfect."

Discrepancy also in the search mask

Even with a preview in the search field, Türeci was shown as "Uğur Şahin's wife".

At Şahin, his job as Biontech boss is mentioned there.

His achievements are rightly highlighted.

He, too, is a child of Turkish immigrants, has been teaching at the University of Mainz for almost 15 years and is considered one of the most renowned cancer researchers in the world.

But that also applies to his partner.

In fact, Özlem Türeci is not the only woman who was first and foremost defined by the Google algorithms about her men.

The former American presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton describes the German Google search as "former US American first lady", as does the women's rights activist and diplomat Eleanor Roosevelt.

How sexist are the algorithms?

Info boxes, as collated by Google, are not editorial contributions.

They appear automatically when users search for people, places, organizations or things that are recorded in the company's own "Knowledge Graph".

This is how the search engine group describes its accumulated knowledge, a kind of database in which information is linked, cataloged and dug out at the right moment.

The resulting knowledge panels are generated from various sources.

According to the company, these can be data partners, for example for music and company figures, or "open web sources", for example news media or Wikipedia.

Nevertheless, Google can intervene if the algorithms make mistakes.

According to the company, celebrities or other public figures are even given "opportunities to exert direct influence."

You can write your info boxes yourself if necessary.

Does the German Google search only have a problem?

However, that does not explain why the German algorithms apparently work worse than their international counterparts.

If you want to find out something about Özlem Türeci in the American Google search, you will be introduced to the knowledge panel as a "Medical research scientist", as well as in the Spanish and French Google search.

It is only a "Wife of" when you preview it in the search field.

One reason for the international differences could be the excessive reporting in the German media.

If Türeci was written about in this country, her husband usually appeared in a prominent place.

In the American press, however, less was written about Biontech, here Google has to rely more on Wikipedia and similar sources.

There, the relationship with Uğur Şahin only appears in the very last sentence.

In other words: The German knowledge panels are only as sexist as the media from which they are built.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2020-11-10

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