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Bias detectives – the researchers striving to make algorithms fair

As machine learning infiltrates society, scientists grapple with how to make algorithms fair

Litigating Algorithms

AI Now teamed up with NYU Law’s Center on Race, Inequality and the Law and the Electronic Frontier Foundation to conduct a deep examination of current United States courtroom litigation where the use of algorithms by government was central to the rights and liberties at issue in the case.

Silicon Valley is stumped – Even AI cannot always remove bias from hiring

Cofounder Meredith Whittaker raises concerns about AI products used in sourcing and hiring employees, questions their claims to "remove bias" from hiring, and calls for increased oversight and accountability.

If Machines Take Over, Who Will Be in Charge?

That limited group is introducing human biases into algorithms, warned Kate Crawford, co-founder of AI Now Research Institute. “In some ways, the people designing these systems are the least well-trained to think about the problems,” she said.

AI Experts Want Government Algorithms to Be Studied Like Environmental Hazards

AI Now, a nonprofit founded to study the societal impacts of AI, said an algorithmic impact assessment (AIA) would assure that the public and governments understand the scope, capability, and secondary impacts an algorithm could have, and people could voice concerns if an algorithm was behaving in a biased or unfair way.

How Coders Are Fighting Bias in Facial Recognition Software

“Lots of companies are now taking these things seriously, but the playbook for how to fix them is still being written,” says Meredith Whittaker, co-director of AI Now, an institute focused on ethics and artificial intelligence at New York University.

AI and Ethics: People, Robots and Society at Transformers: Artificial Intelligence | Washington Post Live

When Will Americans Be Angry Enough To Demand Honesty About Algorithms?

This week the AI Now Institute, a leading group studying the topic, published its own proposal. It’s called an “Algorithmic Impact Assessment,” or AIA, and it’s essentially an environmental impact report for automated software used by governments. “A similar process should take place before an agency deploys a new, high-impact automated decision system,” the group writes.

Artificial intelligence is going to supercharge surveillance

“The data they have is from police body cams, which tells us a lot about who an individual police officer may profile, but doesn’t give us a full picture,” says Whittaker. “There’s a real danger with this that we are universalizing biased pictures of criminality and crime.”

The Trouble with Bias

Cofounder Kate Crawford delivers a keynote address at NIPS 2017, highlighting issues with bias across the field of AI.

Artificial Intelligence Seeks An Ethical Conscience

Crawford told the audience that more troubling errors are surely brewing behind closed doors, as companies and governments adopt machine learning in areas such as criminal justice, and finance. “The common examples I’m sharing today are just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

Studying Artificial Intelligence At New York University

New York University just opened an institute that studies the social implications of artificial intelligence. NPR’s Linda Wertheimer talks with co-founder Kate Crawford.

The field of AI research is about to get way bigger than code

Kate Crawford, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, and Meredith Whittaker, founder of Open Research at Google, want to change that. They announced today the AI Now Institute, a research organization to explore how AI is affecting society at large. AI Now will be cross-disciplinary, bridging the gap between data scientists, lawyers, sociologists, and economists studying the implementation of artificial intelligence.

AI Now 2017 Report

With support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the AI Now Institute is happy to release our 2nd annual report, outlining the state of current research, what's at stake, and a set of key recommendations for the field.

AI experts want to end ‘black box’ algorithms in government

The AI Now report calls for agencies to refrain from what it calls “black box” systems opaque to outside scrutiny. Kate Crawford, a researcher at Microsoft and cofounder of AI Now, says citizens should be able to know how systems making decisions about them operate and have been tested or validated.

This Moment in Artificial Intelligence

2017 Symposium

The second annual AI Now Symposium deepened the examination of the near-term social and economic implications of AI begun during the first Symposium, addressing four key issues in relation to AI: Rights and Liberties, Labor and Automation, Bias and Inclusion, and Ethics and Governance. These themes built on the work done during the 2016 Symposium, and introduced new areas of concern, with close attention to developments that have occurred in the intervening 12 months.

2016 Symposium

In July of 2016, Kate Crawford and Meredith Whittaker co-chaired the first AI Now Symposium in collaboration with the Obama White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Economic Council. The event brought together leading experts and members of the public to discuss the near-term social and economic implications of artificial intelligence.