From The New York Times
By Claire Cain Miller
The online world is shaped by forces beyond our control, determining the stories we read on Facebook, the people we meet on OkCupid and the search results we see on Google. Big data is used to make decisions about health care, employment, housing, education and policing.
But can computer programs be discriminatory?
There is a widespread belief that software and algorithms that rely on data are objective. But software is not free of human influence. Algorithms are written and maintained by people, and machine learning algorithms adjust what they do based on people’s behavior. As a result, say researchers in computer science, ethics and law, algorithms can reinforce human prejudices....
“The question of determining which kinds of biases we don’t want to tolerate is a policy one,” said Deirdre Mulligan, who studies these issues at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information. “It requires a lot of care and thinking about the ways we compose these technical systems.”
Silicon Valley, however, is known for pushing out new products without necessarily considering the societal or ethical implications. “There’s a huge rush to innovate,” Ms. Mulligan said, “a desire to release early and often — and then do cleanup.”