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Every minute, machines are shaping somebody’s future, as software decides which hospital patients should get extra monitoring or which credit card applicants get a thumbs-down by Dina Bass, Bloomberg Quint.
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| Black Screen With Code Photo: Antonio Batinić from Pexels |
The hope was that programs combining objective criteria and mountains of data could be more efficient than humans while sidestepping their subjectivity and bias. It hasn’t worked out that way. Instead, the hospital program was found to underestimate the needs of Black patients, and the credit card software is being investigated after complaints that it discriminated against women. Algorithms, the logic at the heart of such programs, can replicate and even amplify the prejudices of those who create them.
1. What’s an algorithm?
A formula for processing information or performing a task. Arranging names in alphabetical order is a kind of algorithm; so is a recipe for making chocolate chip cookies. But they’re usually far more complicated.
Source: Bloomberg
