By Anthony Stanford –
Algorithms got you down?
It might sound like an odd question, but a crop of television commercials extolling the virtues of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how human beings benefit from the expanding use of technology, should pique your interest.
Digging deeper the hype about the usefulness of AI is to an extent valid. And, that it hasn’t benefited the human race is an argument that you’re bound to lose. If you have a cellphone or use a personal computer then you’re a recipient of advances in technology that have, for better or worse, unleashed the power of the algorithm.
However, it’s the ominous side of AI that we don’t stop to think about as we go about our lives. So, while rapper-actor turned pitchman, Common, is generally right when he talks about the power of AI and asks, “What will you do with it,” millions of people if they knew more about the darker side of AI might ask, “What is it doing to us.”
A titan of AI and master of the algorithm, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s mea culpa tour pleading forgiveness for allowing the personal data of millions of users to be accessed by a data-mining company, is an indication that something is out of order.
Aside from Zuckerberg’s recent five-hour-long grilling on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and what manages to make the evening news, coverage related to the adverse impact that algorithms are having on our society barely skims the surface.
The simplest definition that I found defining an algorithm describes it as, “A detailed step-by-step instruction set or formula for solving a problem or completing a task….”
I had no idea that there are about 10 algorithms, some with really odd names like Dijkstra and Secure Hash that dominate the industries of the world. Maybe it’s just me, but given the power of these ubiquitous systems over our lives, discovering them was somewhat disquieting.
For example, the use of algorithms in the health insurance industry has been known to create problems by denying benefits and medical treatment that in some instances have had catastrophic results.
In her book, “Automating Inequality: How High Tech Tools, Profile, Police and Punish the Poor,” Virginia Eubanks talks about how technology has permeated the systems intended to help the poor and hampers their effort to access the life-sustaining resources that impoverished people need.
By taking human beings out of the decision-making process, AI is stripping away the safety net, a hallmark of our society. And, self-learning algorithms will, in the near future, write algorithms that will have an impact on humankind in ways that could erase fundamental safeguards.
More systems that fund social service programs intended to protect the underclass, are using predictive algorithms that wreak havoc on the lives of economically oppressed people. These faceless modular systems whose function is to optimize profit and reduce expenditures churn out data, replacing a once deliberate hands-on process that took into account more than the bottom line.
From the funding of our public institutions to awarding Social Security Disability benefits, the use of algorithms is blurring the line between our democracy and other forms of government.
Chances are that if you’ve been turned down for a loan, rejected by a college, or told that your insurance policy doesn’t cover it, you’re up against a hard algorithm. And, I dare you to try looking an algorithm in the eye.
As the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s, “2001: A Space Odyssey” is observed, I can’t help but think what the modern version of HAL 9000 would say. Yet, something tells me that it’s far more sinister than, “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Anthony Stanford is the author of “Homophobia in The Black Church: How Faith, Politics, and Fear Divide the Black Community.”
