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Re:Algorithms Are Great and All, but They Can Also Ruin Lives by cag_ii on Wednesday November 19, 2014 @02:20PM (#8632027)
Well said. Errors will happen. How they're monitored/dealt with is not an algorithm problem, and it's importance can't be underestimated.

In this case "the algorithm" is the fly in the printer from the '85 movie "Brazil". Except these are real stories, it's absurd.

Re:Algorithms Are Great and All, but They Can Also Ruin Lives by dragonwriter on Wednesday November 19, 2014 @02:31PM (#8632099)
> How they're monitored/dealt with is not an algorithm problem

Sure it is; what inputs go into producing the ultimate decision and how those inputs are processed is an algorithm problem. Particularly, whether and when output is sent to one or more humans requesting input, and how input from those human(s) is factored into the ultimate decision is an algorithm problem.

The fact that the decision algorithms at issue often do not involve human assessment as part of the input set when they should is a defect in the algorithms' fitness for their intended purposes.

Re:Algorithms Are Great and All, but They Can Also Ruin Lives by exelius on Wednesday November 19, 2014 @03:11PM (#8632314)
I think you're combining "algorithm" and "process" which is something programmers often do (because for a programmer, they are the same thing). Businesses tend to think of "algorithms" as black boxes where you feed a data set in one side and get a modified data set out the other. That data is then incorporated as part of a business process.

If you're designing a process where you take the output of a program and delete all records flagged by the program, you can add a human validation step in pretty easily. Companies often have process engineers whose job it is to do exactly this: and when you're talking about data management, process and governance are very important.