RESUMO
Policymakers are increasingly turning toward assessments of social, economic, and ethical impacts as a governance model for automated decision systems in sensitive or regulated domains. In both the United States and the European Union, recently proposed legislation would require developers to assess the impacts of their systems for individuals, communities, and society, a notable step beyond the technical assessments that are familiar to the industry. This paper analyzes four examples of such legislation in order to illustrate how AI regulations are moving toward using accountability documentation to address common AI accountability concerns: identifying and documenting harms, public transparency, and anti-discrimination rules. We then offer some insights into how designers of automated decisions systems might prepare for and respond to such rules.
RESUMO
The COVID-19 pandemic has, in a matter of a few short months, drastically reshaped society around the world. Because of the growing perception of machine learning as a technology capable of addressing large problems at scale, machine learning applications have been seen as desirable interventions in mitigating the risks of the pandemic disease. However, machine learning, like many tools of technocratic governance, is deeply implicated in the social production and distribution of risk and the role of machine learning in the production of risk must be considered as engineers and other technologists develop tools for the current crisis. This paper describes the coupling of machine learning and the social production of risk, generally, and in pandemic responses specifically. It goes on to describe the role of risk management in the effort to institutionalize ethics in the technology industry and how such efforts can benefit from a deeper understanding of the social production of risk through machine learning.
