An FDA for Algorithms?

Re:An FDA for Algorithms? by xg15 on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @04:39AM (#18448647)

She has good points. However, when practically implementing this, I could see the "any measure that becomes a target ceases to be a good measure" effect biting back: I imagine many companies would suddenly become very eager to insist that their algorithms are in fact not algorithms at all but "simply computer code" or such - and a lot of hair-splitting will ensue about what exactly is or isn't an algorithm...

(I'm not arguing this shouldn't be done, only that it would be messy)

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Re:An FDA for Algorithms? by emiliobumachar on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @05:20AM (#18448832)

Fun fact: algorithms cannot be patented. Calling an algorithm something else is a very well developed branch of patent application work.

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Re:An FDA for Algorithms? by mbel on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @04:44AM (#18448671)

Yeah, the only way I can imagine it working is forcing everyone to open source their code. It doesn't sound very realistic.

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Re:An FDA for Algorithms? by carlmr on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @04:49AM (#18448695)

Well you could technically demand the companies show the source to this hypothetical organization. AFAIK the FAA will take a look at the software that runs on planes, and how well you can trace requirements, whether the requirements are tested. Still Boeing and Airbus don't have their code on GitHub.

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Re:An FDA for Algorithms? by mbel on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @05:05AM (#18448768)

Alright, I haven't thought about that. Yes, definitely certification is another option.

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Re:An FDA for Algorithms? by carlmr on Thursday November 15, 2018 @03:38AM (#18457763)

Don't get me wrong. I think it's possible, but it would be so costly that you would need to close nearly every software business in the US.

Safety critical software costs about 100x as much money/time to develop as compared to non safety critical software. "Algorithms" are everywhere, so certification costs would make any software shop as costly as automotive and aerospace. That's just completely misguided. Countries without such restrictions would take over the global software market quickly.

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Re:An FDA for Algorithms? by denzil_correa on Wednesday November 14, 2018 @04:50AM (#18448705)

> I imagine many companies would suddenly become very eager to insist that their algorithms are in fact not algorithms at all but "simply computer code" or such

All you need to do is make human(s) accountable for decisions taken. It doesn't matter what is fed as input into the decision making process.

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