Opening the black box: a primer for anti-discrimination

Discover Artificial Intelligence, 2023

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become one of the technologies used for competitive advantage. However, there are also growing concerns about bias in AI models as AI developers risk introducing bias both unintentionally and intentionally. This study, using a qualitative approach, investigated how AI developers can contribute to the development of fair AI models. The key findings reveal that the risk of bias is mainly because of the lack of gender and social diversity in AI development teams, and haste from AI managers to deliver much-anticipated results. The integrity of AI developers is also critical as they may conceal bias from management and other AI stakeholders. The testing phase before model deployment risks bias because it is rarely representative of the diverse societal groups that may be affected. The study makes practical recommendations in four main areas: governance, social, technical, and training and development processes. Responsible organisations need to take deliberate actions to ensure that their AI developers adhere to fair processes when developing AI; AI developers must prioritise ethical considerations and consider the impact their models may have on society; partnerships between AI developers, AI stakeholders, and society that might be impacted by AI models should be established; and AI developers need to prioritise transparency and explainability in their models while ensuring adequate testing for bias and corrective measures before deployment. Emotional intelligence training should also be provided to the AI developers to help them engage in productive conversations with individuals outside the development team.

2020

Bias in algorithmic systems is a major cause of unfair and discriminatory decisions in the use of such systems. Cognitive bias is very likely to be reflected in algorithmic systems as humankind aims to map Human Intelligence (HI) to Artificial Intelligence (AI). An extensive literature review on the identification and mitigation of bias leads to precise measures for project teams building AI-systems. Aspects like AI-responsibility, AI-fairness and AI-safety are addressed by developing a framework that can be used as a guideline for project teams. It proposes measures in the form of checklists to identify and mitigate bias in algorithmic systems considering all steps during system design, implementation and application.

E3S web of conferences, 2023

In recent years, research into and concern over algorithmic fairness and bias in machine learning systems has grown significantly. It is vital to make sure that these systems are fair, impartial, and do not support discrimination or social injustices since machine learning algorithms are becoming more and more prevalent in decision-making processes across a variety of disciplines. This abstract gives a general explanation of the idea of algorithmic fairness, the difficulties posed by bias in machine learning systems, and different solutions to these problems. Algorithmic bias and fairness in machine learning systems are crucial issues in this regard that demand the attention of academics, practitioners, and policymakers. Building fair and unbiased machine learning systems that uphold equality and prevent discrimination requires addressing biases in training data, creating fairnessaware algorithms, encouraging transparency and interpretability, and encouraging diversity and inclusivity.

EURO journal on decision processes, 2023

AI for Social Good: Harvard CRCS Workshop, Online, 20-21 July 2020, 2020

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to exacerbate societal bias and set back decades of advances in equal rights and civil liberty. Data used to train machine learning algorithms may capture social injustices, inequality or discriminatory attitudes that may be learned and perpetuated in society. Attempts to address this issue are rapidly emerging from different perspectives involving technical solutions, social justice and data governance measures. While each of these approaches are essential to the development of a comprehensive solution, often discourse associated with each seems disparate. This paper reviews ongoing work to ensure data justice, fairness and bias mitigation in AI systems from different domains exploring the interrelated dynamics of each and examining whether the inevitability of bias in AI training data may in fact be used for social good. We highlight the complexity associated with defining policies for dealing with bias. We also consider technical challenges in addressing issues of societal bias.

Law and Contemporary Problems, 84(3), 19-33, 2021

The Cambridge Law Journal

Clear understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) usage risks and how they are being addressed is needed, which requires proper and adequate corporate disclosure. We advance a legal framework for AI Fairness Reporting to which companies can and should adhere on a comply-or-explain basis. We analyse the sources of unfairness arising from different aspects of AI models and the disparities in the performance of machine learning systems. We evaluate how the machine learning literature has sought to address the problem of unfairness through the use of different fairness metrics. We then put forward a nuanced and viable framework for AI Fairness Reporting comprising: (1) disclosure of all machine learning models usage; (2) disclosure of fairness metrics used and the ensuing trade-offs; (3) disclosure of de-biasing methods used; and (d) release of datasets for public inspection or for third-party audit. We then apply this reporting framework to two case studies.

Res Publica, 2023

2019

Bias in algorithmic systems is a major cause of unfair and discriminatory decisions in the use of such systems. Cognitive bias is very likely to be reflected in algorithmic systems as humankind aims to map Human Intelligence (HI) to Artificial Intelligence (AI). An extensive literature review on the identification and mitigation of bias leads to precise measures for project teams building AI-systems. Aspects like AI-responsibility, AI-fairness and AI-safety are addressed by developing a framework that can be used as a guideline for project teams. It proposes measures in the form of checklists to identify and mitigate bias in algorithmic systems considering all steps during system design, implementation and

Journal of Technology in Human Services

As more industries integrate machine learning into socially sensitive decision processes like hiring, loan-approval, and parole-granting, we are at risk of perpetuating historical and contemporary socioeconomic disparities. This is a critical problem because on the one hand, organizations who use but do not understand the discriminatory potential of such systems will facilitate the widening of social disparities under the assumption that algorithms are categorically objective. On the other hand, the responsible use of machine learning can help us measure, understand, and mitigate the implicit historical biases in socially sensitive data by expressing implicit decision-making mental models in terms of explicit statistical models. In this paper we specify, implement, and evaluate a "fairness-aware" machine learning interface called themis-ml, which is intended for use by individual data scientists and engineers, academic research teams, or larger product teams who use machine learning in production systems.