Algorithms are increasingly relied upon in decision making processes that can have far-reaching implications for all of us. They help doctors diagnose diseases and develop treatment plans. They tell police officers where to patrol. They decide who is going to be invited to the job interview. If these decisions are made by people and the way they decide seems harmful or unjust, our laws enable us to hold them accountable for their actions and correct them if necessary. Principally, these laws are based on what we, as a society, regard as ‘ethical’. But algorithms make decisions differently and are able to make decisions that human beings can’t, because of the amount of data they can take into consideration. Thus, if we wish to hold algorithms accountable for the decisions they make, we need to define the ethical standards that they’re meant to hold up to.
In this seminar, Carla presents the project “A Quality Criteria Catalogue for Algorithms” of the Bertelsmann Stiftung. Among others she discusses the questions “What standards of quality could algorithms be held to?” and, one step further, “How is it possible to make sure that these standards are actually being implemented?”
The event took place on Dec 7th, 2018.
Find Carla’s slides on SlideShare.
