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Re:New Jersey’s experiment to reduce the number of people in... by AnthonyMouse on Monday November 27, 2017 @02:02AM (#15785393)
> When our ML solutions are built on historical data, it learns those biases as well.

It's actually worse than that, because the algorithm is giving you the correct result.

For example, suppose that black men are more likely to fail to appear in part because they have worse, less flexible jobs because of racist hiring practices.

That isn't fair, but it's still true that they're more likely to fail to appear.

Are we supposed to give bail to people we know aren't going to show up because the reason they won't show up isn't fair?

That seems like an obviously bad idea, where the good idea is to do something about racist hiring practices so that doesn't happen anymore. At which point the algorithm will see the new data and un-bias itself.

Re:New Jersey’s experiment to reduce the number of people in... by jnty on Monday November 27, 2017 @08:51AM (#15787260)
This is a dangerous misunderstanding.

The issue comes when features correlated with race are used to make inferences. This can occur in complex ways but a simple example, used elsewhere on this thread, is zip code. It might be that people from a mainly black area are more likely to exhibit whatever negative behaviour the model is looking for than a mainly white area, perhaps for the reasons you mention. What then happens is two otherwise identical people in the model are treated differently based on race.

Re:New Jersey’s experiment to reduce the number of people in... by AnthonyMouse on Monday November 27, 2017 @10:43AM (#15788142)
> The issue comes when features correlated with race are used to make inferences.

Practically all features are correlated with race. Income, culture, religion, education, proximity to gangs, parental involvement, etc. etc. And many factors cause other factors, which then also correlate.

The difference between zip code as a mechanism for Bayesian inference and redlining is that redlining is disproportionate. Redlining doesn't adjust probabilities in response to data, it just outright bans anyone in a neighborhood, which overcompensates. It makes inaccurate predictions to the detriment of the people in that neighborhood, because some of the people there have mitigating factors that overcome the negatives of living there, and it doesn't take that into account. An algorithm that considers all available data does.

You still have to address the things that cause trouble for the people in that neighborhood, but those are separate problems. You have to fix them, not pretend they don't exist.

Re:New Jersey’s experiment to reduce the number of people in... by grafporno on Monday November 27, 2017 @09:20AM (#15787487)
Yes, the algorithm may be correct, but garbage in, garbage out still applies, bcause of biases.