Re:Algorithms Are Great and All, but They Can Also Ruin Lives
by gwern on Wednesday November 19, 2014 @05:40PM
(#8633158)
> (1) Grease the wheels significantly (allowing these decisions kinds of humiliations to occur much more quickly, and in greater bulk);
None of the stories show that. For example, the health one could have happened just as easily in a paper bureaucracy - that's the magic of 'opt in' vs 'opt out'. Just declare invalid all health insurances which are not explicitly renewed. No computer necessary.
> (2) Enable "action at a distance",
What, like paperwork doesn't enable that?
> (3) And they add a patina of (false) respectability
The flagged problems have more to do with no staff and the bureaucracies being self-serving in refusing to review complaints and whatnot, they don't have to do with regular people going 'well, the machine said it, so it must be true!'
(1) Grease the wheels significantly (allowing these decisions kinds of humiliations to occur much more quickly, and in greater bulk);
(2) Enable "action at a distance", both physically and psychologically (it's a lot easier for anyone at any level in the bureaucratic apparatus to shrug their soldiers and say "well, the computer flagged him, I just gotta do my job" than to make a personal determination about that person's guilt or criminal association;
(3) And they add a patina of (false) respectability, via the extreme sexiness of machine learning and everything data-sciencey these days.