New York City’s Bold, Flawed Attempt to Make Algorithms Accountable
NYC’s Bold, Flawed Attempt to Make #Algorithms Accountable
https://www.NewYorker.com/tech/elements/new-york-citys-bold-flawed-attempt-to-make-algorithms-accountable QT: “#NYC should commit to demanding openness in all future contracts with vendors of these algorithmic services…It’s a dereliction of duty to allow vital decisions to be made by a black box.”
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“Frank Pasquale,… told me much the same. “While the terms of past contracts are hard to revisit, New York City should commit to demanding openness in all future contracts with venders of these algorithmic services,” he said. “They have the leverage here, not the firms. Secrecy may incentivize tiny gains in efficiency, but those are not worth the erosion of legitimacy and public confidence in government. It’s a dereliction of duty to allow vital decisions to be made by a black box.”
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Cathy O’Neil, the author of “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy,” told me. “What we’re finding is that the world of algorithms is one ugly wormhole.” In insulating algorithms and their creators from public scrutiny, rather than responding to civic concerns about bias and discrimination, the existing system “propagates the myth that those algorithms are objective and fair,” O’Neil said. “There’s no reason to believe either.””