[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] AI bias

[Robert Primak]

 Jerry -- 
>From your mouth (or keyboard) to God's ears! Absolutely this could be done. But do we have a prayer of a chance in real life? Maybe, and there is always hope.
-- Bob Primak 

    On Sunday, April 10, 2022, 12:53:44 PM EDT, Jerome Slate <slatemd at comcast.net> wrote:  
 
  There is the remote possibility that the same AI values about crime might be used for benevolent purposes. It could be used to signal areas to develop afternoon programs for at risk children, places to open job training schools and subsidized centers for parent training and child care. Unlikely, but possible. 
 Jerry Slate
 
 On 4/9/2022 2:29 PM, Jerry Harris wrote:
  
 
 > wouldn't surprise me if zip codes correlate with a crime. (Probably not with the amount stolen per capita!) It wouldn't surprise me at all if criminal records of relatives correlate more strongly with crime 
  The bias comes into play by using this data to give people from certain zip codes or certain families longer sentences. Or to assign more police officers to certain regions, where in turn they make more arrests for minor crimes they observe (eg, broken tail light, etc), and thus feedback misleading data into the models.  
  Cathy imagines these algorithms to be used to make different decisions:  
Imagine if you used recidivist models to provide the at-risk inmates with counseling and job training while in prison. Or if police doubled down on foot patrols in high crime zip codes -- working to build relationships with the community instead of arresting people for minor offenses. 
 
You might notice there's a human element to these solutions. Because really that's the key. Algorithms can inform and illuminate and supplement our decisions and policies. But to get not-evil results, humans and data really have to work together.
 
"Big Data processes codify the past," O'Neil writes. "They do not invent the future. Doing that requires moral imagination, and that's something only humans can provide."  
 
  https://money.cnn.com/2016/09/06/technology/weapons-of-math-destruction/index.html
 
  Jerry   
  On Sat, Apr 9, 2022 at 12:47 PM Jon Dreyer <jon at jondreyer.org> wrote:
  
  
Not every instance of apparent bias represents bias. John's example seems like an open-and-shut case of bias, but Jerry's may not be. Since zip codes correlate with poverty and poverty correlates with crime, it wouldn't surprise me if zip codes correlate with crime. (Probably not with amount stolen per capita!) It wouldn't surprise me at all if criminal records of relatives correlate more strongly with crime.
 
Whether it's ethical to use that data for a given purpose is a separate question.
 
-- 
 Jon "Bias Sometime" Dreyer
 Math tutor/Computer Science tutor
 Jon Dreyer Music
 On 4/9/22 11:22, Jerry Harris wrote:
  
 John,  You might find the book by Cathy O'Neil, "Weapons of Math Destruction," interesting since it contains more examples in the same vein as the article. The author attended Lexington High School and gave a talk about her book at Follen Church several years ago. Stories such as an algorithm that uses data like zip code and criminal records of relatives to calculate a prisoner's likelihood to commit another crime if released on parole, etc.      https://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Math-Destruction-Increases-Inequality/dp/0553418815 
  Jerry  
  On Sat, Apr 9, 2022 at 10:47 AM john rudy <jjrudy1 at comcast.net> wrote:
  
   
I am taking an AI course and a major issue is the bias build into some AI systems.  If, for example, you pick new hires from those who were successful in the past you’ll mostly hire white males because those were who you mostly had in the past.  Here is a fascinating article from the course
 
https://www.wired.com/story/excerpt-from-automating-inequality/
   
  
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