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posted by Fnord666 on Monday July 17 2017, @03:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the swear-on-a-stack-of-K&Rs dept.

At The Guardian, Cathy O'Neil writes about why algorithms can be wrong. She classifies the reasons into four categories on a spectrum ranging from unintential errors to outright malfeasance. As algorithms now make a large portion of the decisions affecting our lives, scrutiny is ever more important and she provides multiple examples in each category of their impact.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @04:48PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @04:48PM (#540385)

    If there is a logic error in the design of an algorithm, its execution will produce an "unwitting" lie.
    And if their purpose is to lie, or to sometimes lie, they will. Arguably, we are also algorithms, and under some circumstances we do lie.

    It is a requirement for an algorithm to lie if its purpose is to pass Turing's Test.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @04:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @04:57PM (#540399)

    I think you intended to say that it is a requirement for an AI to be able , be able to lie to pass the Turing test which it .. isn't that I assume that's what you meant rather than lying.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @04:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @04:59PM (#540400)

    There is no such thing as an unwitting lie. A lie is by its very definition intentional.