The algorithm audit: Scoring the algorithms that score us

In recent years, the ethical impact of AI has been increasingly scrutinized, with public scandals emerging over biased outcomes, lack of transparency, and the misuse of data. This has led to a growing mistrust of AI and increased calls for mandated ethical audits of algorithms. Current proposals for...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Big data & society Vol. 8; no. 1
Main Authors: Brown, Shea, Davidovic, Jovana, Hasan, Ali
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2021
Sage Publications Ltd
SAGE Publishing
Subjects:
Algorithms
Audits
Context
Due diligence
Ethics
Evaluation
Scandals
Scores
Social environment
Stakeholders
Transparency
Algorithm audits
algorithm ethics
machine learning and ethics
ethics of AI
ethics
machine learning
ISSN:2053-9517, 2053-9517
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In recent years, the ethical impact of AI has been increasingly scrutinized, with public scandals emerging over biased outcomes, lack of transparency, and the misuse of data. This has led to a growing mistrust of AI and increased calls for mandated ethical audits of algorithms. Current proposals for ethical assessment of algorithms are either too high level to be put into practice without further guidance, or they focus on very specific and technical notions of fairness or transparency that do not consider multiple stakeholders or the broader social context. In this article, we present an auditing framework to guide the ethical assessment of an algorithm. The audit instrument itself is comprised of three elements: a list of possible interests of stakeholders affected by the algorithm, an assessment of metrics that describe key ethically salient features of the algorithm, and a relevancy matrix that connects the assessed metrics to stakeholder interests. The proposed audit instrument yields an ethical evaluation of an algorithm that could be used by regulators and others interested in doing due diligence, while paying careful attention to the complex societal context within which the algorithm is deployed.
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ISSN:2053-9517
2053-9517
DOI:10.1177/2053951720983865