Coded Bias was great, thanks for the invite Vicki.
In the movie, Cathy O’Neil argued for legislation requiring algorithms automating decision making to be audited, to make sure they do what they're supposed to do, and aren't discriminatory.
"Algorithmic accountability".
I was excited to find out that there's already a policy at the federal level requiring this for government departments: Directive on Automated Decision-Making- Canada.ca (tbs-sct.gc.ca) https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=32592
Some highlights:
- "The objective of this Directive is to ensure that Automated Decision Systems are deployed in a manner that reduces risks to Canadians and federal institutions, and leads to more efficient, accurate, consistent, and interpretable decisions made pursuant to Canadian law." - Before an automated decision making system can be used, an Algorithmic Impact Assessment https://canada-ca.github.io/aia-eia-js/ has to be completed - Meaningful explanation to affected individuals of how and why the decision was made is required - Ensuring that an Automated Decision System allows for human intervention, when appropriate
Brilliant stuff. I'm beyond impressed to see the public sector ahead of the curve on this.
As for wider society (private industry, RCMP, police) the situation is similar to what's described in the movie. I'm having trouble finding what the state of the discussion is exactly. Most of what I find is around police use of Clearview AI https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/news-and-announcements/2021/nr-c_210203/, and ignores other uses for the technology.
Do you know if there's anyone in MB who's working on this?
Some reports I found: Law Commission of Ontario report https://www.lco-cdo.org/en/the-lco-releases-a-new-report-regulating-ai-critical-issues-and-choices/ Canada Civil Liberties Association report https://ccla.org/cclanewsite/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Interim-Report-Compiled-BM.pdf
Some civil servants with an interest that I managed to find: Benoit Deshaies (@MrDeshaies) / Twitter https://twitter.com/MrDeshaies Omar W. Bitar (@owbitar) / Twitter https://twitter.com/owbitar
On Fri, Apr 9, 2021 at 3:56 PM Vicki Nemeth vicki@vickinemethwriter.com wrote:
Hi everyone,
The Winnipeg Data Science Meetup will be screening "Coded Bias," a documentary film exploring the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini's discovery of racial bias in facial recognition algorithms. The Meetup is on April 20 starting around 6:45pm. You have to register for the Zoom info to get in: https://www.meetup.com/Winnipeg-Data-Science-Meetup/events/277469894/
Anywhos, see you next week,
Vicki Nemeth
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