The Age of Algorithms: Ensuring Explainable Fairness

In her presentation to the IIEA, Cathy O’Neil discussed how algorithms and big data can pose risks to equality and social fairness and can promote discrimination. Dr O’Neill explained how the concept of “Explainable Fairness” should be used to prevent and mitigate social harms caused by algorithms. She also proposed that regulations should be translated into coding of algorithms, instead of expecting lawyers and regulators to decipher mathematical formulas.

About the Speaker:

Cathy O’Neil is the CEO of ORCAA (O'Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing), an algorithmic auditing company. She earned a Ph.D. in maths from Harvard and worked as a professor at Barnard College before working for the hedge fund D.E. Shaw. She is a regular contributor to Bloomberg Opinion and in 2016 wrote the book Weapons of Math Destruction: how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. Her new book The Shame Machine: who profits in the new age of humiliation came out in March 2022.