The Unintended Consequences of New Technologies
So how would a company mitigate these risks:
- Establish a set of policies and principles for all your employees that demonstrates the importance of fairness, openness and trust that will guide the data work.
- Establish processes for checking data sources and data algorithms.
- Ask questions of your service providers about the data they use and how they mitigate against bias.
- Have a diverse team that reviews ‘automated’ decision outcomes on a regular basis, as diversity of thought and thinking will bring different perspectives to the review process.
External organizations, with sites, such as datafordemocracy.org, are providing frameworks and principles that can be used as a starting point to help businesses understand their risks when implementing systems with these new technologies.
As with all new technologies, businesses should test first before launching into company-wide programs that might have unintended consequences.
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