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from the flipping-a-coin-might-have-been-more-accurate dept.
A Michigan government agency wrongly accused individuals in at least 20,000 cases of fraudulently seeking unemployment payments, according to a review by the state.
The review released this week found that an automated system had erroneously accused claimants in 93% of cases – a rate that stunned even lawyers suing the state over the computer system and faulty fraud claims.
"It's literally balancing the books on the backs of Michigan's poorest and jobless," attorney David Blanchard, who is pursuing a class action in federal court on behalf of several claimants, told the Guardian on Friday.
The Michigan unemployment insurance agency (UIA) reviewed 22,427 cases in which an automated computer system determined a claimant had committed insurance fraud, after federal officials, including the Michigan congressman Sander Levin, raised concerns with the system.
When we give up human judgment in favor of software, code becomes law and programmers our unelected legislators.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fritsd on Monday December 19 2016, @11:04AM
A false positive rate of 93% of the Midas computer program means, that that program was NOT TESTED before it was paid for by Michigan State, and put into production.
If the program was not very important, the spec should have said: "a false positive rate of under 5% is acceptable".
Since it deals with desperate people's money, 5% is probably way too high; false positives cause significant suffering.
If they didn't spot 93% false positives, they wouldn't have spotted my implementation either:
/* return value: percentage chance that the applicant has committed unemployment fraud */
float advanced_bayesian_EM_algorithm_gobbledygook_spiky_network_fraud_detector(plebs_t *applicant)
{
return(100.0f);
}
What did the director of the Michigan UIA say, when he/she tested the system with his/her own social security number and got told he/she was a fraud?
"ooh! what a clever computer program! nobody else has found that out yet!"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @12:49PM
What did the director of the Michigan UIA say, when he/she tested the system with his/her own social security number and got told he/she was a fraud?
They said "I have a personal services consulting contract on top of my public service job and its guaranteed pension. I'm not worried about this software ever affecting me personally."