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New Zealand Has a Radical Idea for Fighting Algorithmic Bias: Transparency
The ‘world’s first’ algorithm charter is meant to inform citizens and fight against systemic issues in A.I.
From car insurance quotes to which posts you see on social media, our online lives are guided by invisible, inscrutable algorithms. They help private companies and governments make decisions — or automate them altogether — using massive amounts of data. But despite how crucial they are to everyday life, most people don’t understand how algorithms use their data to make decisions, which means serious problems can go undetected. (Take, for example, research last year that showed anti-Black bias in a widely used algorithm that helps hospitals identify patients in need of extra medical care.)
The New Zealand government has a plan to address this problem with what officials are calling the world’s first algorithm charter: a set of rules and principles for government agencies to follow when implementing algorithms that…
