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posted by Fnord666 on Monday November 19 2018, @07:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the who-watches-the-watchers dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

We Need an FDA For Algorithms

In the introduction to her new book, Hannah Fry points out something interesting about the phrase "Hello World." It's never been quite clear, she says, whether the phrase—which is frequently the entire output of a student's first computer program—is supposed to be attributed to the program, awakening for the first time, or to the programmer, announcing their triumphant first creation.

Perhaps for this reason, "Hello World" calls to mind a dialogue between human and machine, one which has never been more relevant than it is today. Her book, called Hello World, published in September, walks us through a rapidly computerizing world. Fry is both optimistic and excited—along with her Ph.D. students at the University of College, London, she has worked on many algorithms herself—and cautious. In conversation and in her book, she issues a call to arms: We need to make algorithms transparent, regulated, and forgiving of the flawed creatures that converse with them.

I reached her by telephone while she was on a book tour in New York City.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @04:09AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 20 2018, @04:09AM (#764143)

    Not until the working class seizes political power and gains democratic control over the major industries, including software. Proprietary software would fade away after we open source all of the major software companies' code.

    One would also hope such a system would prevent the kind of software developer only possible through private sponsorship (*coughpoetteringcough* pardon me, just some symptoms) from ever entering the field or at least prevent him from gaining any sort of influence over anything important.