Re:To study possibly racist algorithms, professors have to s...
by AnthonyMouse on Wednesday June 29, 2016 @03:51PM
(#12004282)
> No doubt, but I don't think it's even known whether or not COMPAS weights explicitly on race...it was one of the questions asked in the survey I've seen.
Which is a different matter entirely. I don't think there is any good argument that they shouldn't have to publish the algorithm.
> I'm going to assume that race is not actually used as a weight, I would still like to see the methodology used in determining the validity of the other weights, some of which may act as a proxy for race while not having a significant causal effect on recidivism.
The problem is they're all proxies. Homelessness likely correlates with recidivism, but it isn't the homelessness that causes it, it's the poverty and lack of a support network it implies. Someone with affluent close friends who chooses to live outside because they enjoy communing with nature is in a different situation entirely. But you can measure whether someone has a street address more easily than you can measure their support network, so it gets used as a proxy.
I'm not sure causal effect is the thing you want to hang your hat on anyway, otherwise the existence of racism would imply that race has a causal effect on recidivism and should be used as a factor, which I take it is not the outcome you were after.
Which is a different matter entirely. I don't think there is any good argument that they shouldn't have to publish the algorithm.
> I'm going to assume that race is not actually used as a weight, I would still like to see the methodology used in determining the validity of the other weights, some of which may act as a proxy for race while not having a significant causal effect on recidivism.
The problem is they're all proxies. Homelessness likely correlates with recidivism, but it isn't the homelessness that causes it, it's the poverty and lack of a support network it implies. Someone with affluent close friends who chooses to live outside because they enjoy communing with nature is in a different situation entirely. But you can measure whether someone has a street address more easily than you can measure their support network, so it gets used as a proxy.
I'm not sure causal effect is the thing you want to hang your hat on anyway, otherwise the existence of racism would imply that race has a causal effect on recidivism and should be used as a factor, which I take it is not the outcome you were after.