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Full-Text Articles in Science and Technology Studies
Rethinking Algorithmic Bias Through Phenomenology And Pragmatism, Johnathan C. Flowers
Rethinking Algorithmic Bias Through Phenomenology And Pragmatism, Johnathan C. Flowers
Computer Ethics - Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) Proceedings
In 2017, Amazon discontinued an attempt at developing a hiring algorithm which would enable the company to streamline its hiring processes due to apparent gender discrimination. Specifically, the algorithm, trained on over a decade’s worth of resumes submitted to Amazon, learned to penalize applications that contained references to women, that indicated graduation from all women’s colleges, or otherwise indicated that an applicant was not male. Amazon’s algorithm took up the history of Amazon’s applicant pool and integrated it into its present “problematic situation,” for the purposes of future action. Consequently, Amazon declared the project a failure: even after attempting to …
Every Data Point Counts: Political Elections In The Age Of Digital Analytics, Julian Kehle, Samir Naimi
Every Data Point Counts: Political Elections In The Age Of Digital Analytics, Julian Kehle, Samir Naimi
Honors Thesis
Synthesizing the investigative research and cautionary messages from experts in the fields of technology, political science, and behavioral science, this project explores the ways in which digital analytics has begun to influence the American political arena. Historically, political parties have constructed systems to target voters and win elections. However, rapid changes in the field of technology (such as big data, artificial intelligence, and the prevalence of social media) threaten to undermine the integrity of elections themselves. Future political campaigns will utilize profiling to micro-target individuals in order to manipulate and persuade them with hyper-personalized political content. Most dangerously, the average …