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Social Contract 2020 Algorithm Audits for Transparency and Accountability

Christo Wilson Associate Professor Northeastern University. Social Contract 2020 Algorithm Audits for Transparency and Accountability. State of Play. Data volume is increasing exponentially Intelligent systems are increasingly ubiquitous Level of sophistication is increasing rapidly

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Social Contract 2020 Algorithm Audits for Transparency and Accountability

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  1. Christo Wilson Associate Professor Northeastern University Social Contract 2020Algorithm Audits for Transparency and Accountability

  2. State of Play Data volume is increasing exponentially Intelligent systems are increasingly ubiquitous Level of sophistication is increasing rapidly Adoption in sensitive contexts is becoming pervasive Hiring, banking, healthcare, law enforcement, government services, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, etc.

  3. Risks Various types of harms • Privacy violations via ubiquitous surveillance and sophisticated inference methods • Entrenched discrimination (e.g. sexism, racism, ageism, etc.) • Predatory commerce • Biased and manipulative information curation What is different this time? • Scale unlike anything in human history • Information asymmetry due to centralization of data • Lack of transparency and accountability

  4. Regulation is Essential

  5. Enforcement? Accountability requires transparency • Public source code? • Millions of lines of code can’t be comprehended • Behavior of machine learning is based on data not code • Public data? • Serious privacy concerns

  6. A Third Option: Algorithm Audits Algorithm Auditing: the application of scientific measurement techniques to understand: • When an algorithmic system is present • Data collection and sharing practices • Behavior of the system

  7. Countries should adopt policies and laws that facilitate (and possibly require) algorithm audits z

  8. Parallels to Cybersecurity Penetration testing and Red Team reviews to proactively identify security problems

  9. Algorithm Auditing Methods Ecologically Valid Data Controlled, Laboratory Data Use web scrapers or other tools to probe a system Carefully control all interactions with the system Answer specific questions about why a system behaves a particular way Recruit participants to interact with a system of interest Record all data Gives an overall understanding of a systems behavior

  10. Racial bias in Google’s AdSense system uncovered by Latanya Sweeney in 2013 Chris Wilson Trevon Jones Looking for Chris Wilson? Trevon Jones, Arrested? www.yellowpages.com www.instantcheckmate.com Find People Near You! Search Criminal Records, Sex Offender Registry, and More. Ad Ad

  11. Results from My Research Comprehensive “maps” of information sharing between online advertisers and trackers Incorrect prices sent to passengers by Uber Price discrimination by e-commerce and travel websites Gender discrimination in resume search tools used by recruiters Racial and gender discrimination on “gig-economy” services

  12. Discrimination in the Gig-economy

  13. Not Every Audit is Negative Members of Congress and the US President have accused online platforms of political bias • “Google Search censors conservative news sources” • “Social media censors conservative voices” These are scientifically testable hypotheses Google Search is not politically biased • Search results reflect the prevailing media ecosystem, which leans slightly left in the US Comment moderation on YouTube is not politically biased • More moderation on conservative videos, but… • Also greater prevalence of hate speech and mis/disinformation

  14. Paths Forward

  15. Regulation is essentialRegulation without enforcement is pointlessAlgorithm auditing is a proven, scientific method for creating transparency and facilitating accountabilityCountries should seriously consider how to integrate algorithm audits into their policy toolbox z

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