Google wants to make technology more inclusive

Google has released a free and open-source authoring tool to increase inclusion in search results and power new filters in Photos. The technology giant aims to improve the inclusiveness of skin color in technology with the Monk Skin Tone (MST) scale.

‘For more inclusive technology’

Google is expanding its skin color research, which they first started in 2018, into a broader project with work with Ellis Monk of Harvard University. Available as open source, the MST scale has 10 tons and the company plans to incorporate the scale into various Google products in the coming months.

With MST, which will first be integrated into Google Search and Photos, it will begin to show more results that include dark skin tones in search results. For example, users will have different skin color filtering tools so that when they perform a makeup query in Search, they can find the results most relevant to them.

Photos will have a similar process. Google says the filters that will be available are designed to work well on skin tones and have a wider range of looks.

Google wants to make the technology much more inclusive, together with other developers, by releasing the MST project as open source. The company will also continue to work with Monk to evaluate scale and product applications across different regions.