Post on 09-Dec-2015
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SHOULD BIOMETRIC ENGINEERS BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE ALGORITHMS THAT THEY WRITE?
E M I L I O M O R D I N I
ON KNIVES, ETHICS & ALGORITHMS
Presentation delivered at the XI International Summer School on Biometrics – Alghero June 13,
2014
ACCOUNTABILITY
A moral agent should be held accountable for the consequences of her/his actions or projects.
ACCOUNTABILITY IN HETEROGENEOUS ORGANISATIONS
Contemporary world is increasingly made up by heterogeneous organisations in which individuals and technological devices amalgamate and perform activities side by side. This allows playing a new version of the old “blame avoidance” game
ARE YOU ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR ALGORITHMS?
It is not me! It’s the algorithm!
THE «KNIFE ARGUMENT»
THE STANDARD ARGUMENT
STRUCTURE OF THE ARGUMENT
Claiming that writers of algorithms should be held accountable for the consequences that the use of such algorithms may have, is it comparable to holding the manufacturer of a knife accountable for the death of anyone killed by that knife.
IN OTHER WORDS
If you consider an engineer responsible for the usage of the technology that he created, then you should consider responsible the knife producer for all homicides made by using a knife
A VERY STRONG ARGUMENT?
MMH…. LET’S SEE
HOW MANY KNIVES EXIST?
ALTHOUGH YOU COULD CALL THEM BOTH KNIVES, THESE TWO ITEMS ARE NOT THE SAME ITEM, ARE THEY?
MILITARY KNIVES
ANCIENT KNIVES
CAMPING KNIVES
KITCHEN KNIVES
COMBAT KNIVES
COUNTRY KNIVES
CUTTERS AND RETRACTABLE
HIGH TECH KNIVES
HUNTING KNIVES
MASKED KNIVES
UNUSUAL KNIVES
POCKET KNIVES
PLASTIC KNIVES
THROWING KNIVES
TABLE KNIVES
THE «KNIFE» DOES NOT EXIST
In real life there is not a «knife» but there are many different items that we call collectively «knives» because they share some properties, but in the same while they also show very different features, including their capacity for harming
OF COURSE EVERYTHING COULD BE USED TO KILL
LET’S SEE SOME EXAMPLES
SHOOES
JAR OF PICKELS
SPATULA
TOILET TANK LID
PEN
SPOON
BOWLING BALL
HOUSE BRICK
… AND EVEN
BUT…DES IGN IS ST ILL IMPORTANT AS KN IFE H ISTORY SHOWS
1630 AD
Cardinal Richelieu got irritated by the behavior of men at the dining tables, stabbing their knives (which doubled as table cutlery) into chunks of meat and other food, or into the table, and by the their habit of using the sharp knives to pick their teeth at the end of the meal. To put an end to this behavior, he ordered his kitchen staff to file off the sharp points of all the house knifes. Soon this new style of rounded table knife became a trendy dinner accessory.
1669 AD
King Louis XIV of France, the Sun King (le Roi-Soleil), banned pointed knives – at the table and as weapons – to try put an end to the culture of violence of the time. This further cemented the position of the round-ended table knife as preferred form of cutlery.
IN CONCLUSIONTHE KNIFE ARGUMENT IS FALLACIOUS
BECAUSE
THESE TWO ITEMS ARE NOT THE SAME
AND THE SAME HOLDS TRUE WITH ALGORITHMS
Gesture Recognition Euthanasia Decision
TAKE FOR INSTANCE SOFT BIOMETRICS
SKIN COLOUR IS ONE ELEMENT USED FOR DETERMINING ETHNICITY THROUGH SOFT BIOMETRICS
THER ARE AT LEAST 36 DIFFERENT SKIN COLOURS IN THE HUMAN SPECIES
THESE TWO SKINS ARE NOT THE SAME COLOUR ALTHOUGH YOU MAY CALL THEM BOTH «BLACK»
THESE TWO SKINS ARE NOT THE SAME COLOUR ALTHOUGH YOU MAY CALL THEM BOTH «WHITE»
IF YOUR ALGORITHMS CONSIDER ONLY 5 SKIN COLOURS, THEN …
THE BLAME FOR THIS WILL BE ALSO ON YOU
OF COURSE YOU COULD ACHIEVE RACISM BY OTHER MEANS AS WELL
YET THIS DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT
Technologies provide values that follow from properties of the technology itself
OF COURSE
No one could predict how a technological artifact will be used in real life
YET TECHNOLOGY DESIGN IS NOT VALUE-FREE
The way in which a technology is used is embedded in its design
FOR INSTANCE
A racist engineer will unvoidably design technologies which will be more prone to be used for racist purposes
KEEP CONTROL OF YOUR TECHNOLOGY
The more an engineer is unaware of her value mindset, the more her technology will be out of her control
BE AWARE OF YOUR VALUES
It is an ethical obligation for those who write computer algorithms to be aware of their value bias.
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
And above all, please, please, please, never use any longer the metaphor of knife to argue that computer scientists should not be considered ethically accountable for their algorithms
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION
emi l io.mordin i@rtexpert .com