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Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence Agents Influence Many Areas of Life Today

• In particular, these artificial agents influence the news articles read and associated advertising, access to credit and capital investment, risk assessments for convicts, and others.

This Reliance on Artificial Agents Carries Risks that Have Caused Concern

• The potential for bias is one concern. Algorithms give the illusion of being unbiased but are written by people and trained on socially generated data. So they can encode and amplify human biases. Use of artificial agents in sentencing and other legal contexts is one area in particular that has caused concerns about bias.
• Another concern is that increasing reliance on artificial agents is fueling the rapid automation of jobs, even jobs that would seem to rely heavily on human intelligence, such as journalism and radiology.
• Among other risks are the possibility of hacked reward functions (an issue with machine learning) and the inability to distinguish among cultural differences.

Remedies Will Most Likely Require a Combination of Technical and Nontechnical Approaches

• Reliance on algorithms for autonomous decisionmaking requires equipping them with means of auditing the causal factors behind decisions.
• Algorithms can lead to inequitable outcomes. Instilling a healthy dose of informed skepticism in the public would help reduce the effects of automation bias.
• Training and diversity in the ranks of algorithm developers could help improve sensitivity to potential disparate impact problems.

Machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence systems influence many aspects of people's lives: news articles, movies to watch, people to spend time with, access to credit, and even the investment of capital. Algorithms have been empowered to make such decisions and take actions for the sake of efficiency and speed. Despite these gains, there are concerns about the rapid automation of jobs (even such jobs as journalism and radiology). A better understanding of attitudes toward and interactions with algorithms is essential precisely because of the aura of objectivity and infallibility cultures tend to ascribe to them. This report illustrates some of the shortcomings of algorithmic decisionmaking, identifies key themes around the problem of algorithmic errors and bias, and examines some approaches for combating these problems. This report highlights the added risks and complexities inherent in the use of algorithmic decisionmaking in public policy. The report ends with a survey of approaches for combating these problems.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Algorithms: Definition and Evaluation

• Chapter Three

  The Problem in Focus: Factors and Remedies

• Chapter Four

  Conclusion