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Daily Archives: August 17, 2017

A note on the impossibility of “fairness”

A note on the impossibility of “fairness” – Thomas Miconi
“Various measures can be used to determine bias or unfairness in a predictor. Previous work has already established that some of these measures are incompatible with each other. Here we show that, when groups differ in prevalence of the predicted event, several intuitive measures of fairness (ratio of positive predictions to event occurrence, probability of positive prediction given actual occurrence or non-occurrence, and probability of occurrence given positive or negative prediction) are all mutually exclusive: if one of them is equal among groups, the other two must differ. The only exceptions are for perfect, or trivial (always-positive or always-negative) predictors. As a consequence, any non-perfect, non-trivial predictor can always be portrayed as biased or unfair under a certain perspective. The result applies to all predictors, algorithmic or human. We conclude with possible ways to handle this effect when assessing and designing prediction methods.”

Submitted 5 Jul 2017 to Applications [stat.AP]
Published 6 Jul 2017
Updated 1 Aug 2017

Subjects: stat.AP cs.AI stat.ML
http://arxiv.org/abs/1707.01195
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.01195.pdf

Report to Congress: DATA Act Pilot Program

Report to Congress: DATA Act Pilot Program, Office of Management and Budget, August 10, 2017. “In May 2017, the Administration enabled a new view of Federal spending that for the first time, linked Federal account information to awards. This represents the successful implementation of the centerpiece of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014… Continue Reading

Algorithmic Transparency for the Smart City

Brauneis, Robert and Goodman, Ellen P., Algorithmic Transparency for the Smart City (August 2, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3012499 “Emerging across many disciplines are questions about algorithmic ethics – about the values embedded in artificial intelligence and big data analytics that increasingly replace human decisionmaking. Many are concerned that an algorithmic society is too opaque… Continue Reading

Get your weather forecast, viewing map, imagery and more for historic August 21 event

NOAA: “While most of America will be looking up on August 21 during the solar eclipse, NOAA’s GOES-16, America’s newest weather satellite, will be looking down at Earth, tracking the moon’s shadow across the United States with its highly sophisticated Advanced Baseline Imager. NOAA plans to publish images of the eclipse from GOES-16 and its other… Continue Reading

EFF – Congress is At Home, So Pay Your Members a Visit

EFF: “It’s August. In the United States, that means members of Congress will be swinging back home to their home districts to check in with their state-side staffers, hit some fundraisers, and maybe host a few public events. You can meet them. Constituents can request meetings with members of Congress while they are home this… Continue Reading

OpenCorporates posts French company registration database

opencorporates blog: “It is thanks to the persistence, effort, and hard-work from open data advocates both inside and outside government that French companies are now available as open data. Since January, France’s Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (INSEE) has published the official “SIRENE” company registration database as open data, and after extensive… Continue Reading