Machine Bias And Secret Algorithm Analysis

In “Machine Bias” and “Secret Algorithms Threaten the Rule of Law”, many issues arise with the application of algorithmic tools that use predictive measures to establish scores for individuals that determine the likelihood that they will commit a crime. These crime predicting scores are being used in a utilitarian way that makes sure people with high (more likely to commit crime) scores are incarcerated and kept away from the public while lower (less likely) scored people aren’t punished as harshly, a predictive algorithm in theory “produces the greatest balance of good over harm”, Eden Medina. In “Machine Bias”, a person, Zilly, stole so that he could buy meth after he relapsed. He earned a high score due to his actions, contrarily, being involved in recovery and having decent intentions had no effect on the algorithm showing how, “the outcome of the behavior matters, not the …show more content…
The algorithm is performing its designed task-- to give people a chance of lesser punishment if the algorithm decides that they probably won’t be detrimental to society. However not everyone benefits from this algorithm, it is believed that more people benefit from it than are harmed, making it ethical to a utilitarian.
I believe that these algorithms can be ethical by some deontological theories, but the US criminal justice system itself follows teleological theory. In the deontological approach, the algorithms take inputs of what someone has done in their life and develops an output to return depending on the rules in the algorithm. Example algorithm:
Inputs: [X-killed four people, X-assaulted someone] Rules:[Murder is bad, Assault is bad] Consequence: X-probably is not safe for the