on knives, ethics & algorithms

SHOULD BIOMETRIC ENGINEERS BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE ALGORITHMS THAT THEY WRITE?

E M I L I O M O R D I N I

ON KNIVES, ETHICS & ALGORITHMS

Presentation delivered at the XI International Summer School on Biometrics – Alghero June 13,

2014

ACCOUNTABILITY

A moral agent should be held accountable for the consequences of her/his actions or projects.

ACCOUNTABILITY IN HETEROGENEOUS ORGANISATIONS

Contemporary world is increasingly made up by heterogeneous organisations in which individuals and technological devices amalgamate and perform activities side by side. This allows playing a new version of the old “blame avoidance” game

ARE YOU ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR ALGORITHMS?

It is not me! It’s the algorithm!

THE «KNIFE ARGUMENT»

THE STANDARD ARGUMENT

STRUCTURE OF THE ARGUMENT

Claiming that writers of algorithms should be held accountable for the consequences that the use of such algorithms may have, is it comparable to holding the manufacturer of a knife accountable for the death of anyone killed by that knife.

IN OTHER WORDS

If you consider an engineer responsible for the usage of the technology that he created, then you should consider responsible the knife producer for all homicides made by using a knife

A VERY STRONG ARGUMENT?

MMH…. LET’S SEE

HOW MANY KNIVES EXIST?

ALTHOUGH YOU COULD CALL THEM BOTH KNIVES, THESE TWO ITEMS ARE NOT THE SAME ITEM, ARE THEY?

MILITARY KNIVES

ANCIENT KNIVES

CAMPING KNIVES

KITCHEN KNIVES

COMBAT KNIVES

COUNTRY KNIVES

CUTTERS AND RETRACTABLE

HIGH TECH KNIVES

HUNTING KNIVES

MASKED KNIVES

UNUSUAL KNIVES

POCKET KNIVES

PLASTIC KNIVES

THROWING KNIVES

TABLE KNIVES

THE «KNIFE» DOES NOT EXIST

In real life there is not a «knife» but there are many different items that we call collectively «knives» because they share some properties, but in the same while they also show very different features, including their capacity for harming

OF COURSE EVERYTHING COULD BE USED TO KILL

LET’S SEE SOME EXAMPLES

SHOOES

JAR OF PICKELS

SPATULA

TOILET TANK LID

PEN

SPOON

BOWLING BALL

HOUSE BRICK

… AND EVEN

BUT…DES IGN IS ST ILL IMPORTANT AS KN IFE H ISTORY SHOWS

1630 AD

Cardinal Richelieu got irritated by the behavior of men at the dining tables, stabbing their knives (which doubled as table cutlery) into chunks of meat and other food, or into the table, and by the their habit of using the sharp knives to pick their teeth at the end of the meal. To put an end to this behavior, he ordered his kitchen staff to file off the sharp points of all the house knifes. Soon this new style of rounded table knife became a trendy dinner accessory.

1669 AD

King Louis XIV of France, the Sun King (le Roi-Soleil), banned pointed knives – at the table and as weapons – to try put an end to the culture of violence of the time. This further cemented the position of the round-ended table knife as preferred form of cutlery.

IN CONCLUSIONTHE KNIFE ARGUMENT IS FALLACIOUS

BECAUSE

THESE TWO ITEMS ARE NOT THE SAME

AND THE SAME HOLDS TRUE WITH ALGORITHMS

Gesture Recognition Euthanasia Decision

TAKE FOR INSTANCE SOFT BIOMETRICS

SKIN COLOUR IS ONE ELEMENT USED FOR DETERMINING ETHNICITY THROUGH SOFT BIOMETRICS

THER ARE AT LEAST 36 DIFFERENT SKIN COLOURS IN THE HUMAN SPECIES

THESE TWO SKINS ARE NOT THE SAME COLOUR ALTHOUGH YOU MAY CALL THEM BOTH «BLACK»

THESE TWO SKINS ARE NOT THE SAME COLOUR ALTHOUGH YOU MAY CALL THEM BOTH «WHITE»

IF YOUR ALGORITHMS CONSIDER ONLY 5 SKIN COLOURS, THEN …

THE BLAME FOR THIS WILL BE ALSO ON YOU

OF COURSE YOU COULD ACHIEVE RACISM BY OTHER MEANS AS WELL

YET THIS DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT

Technologies provide values that follow from properties of the technology itself

OF COURSE

No one could predict how a technological artifact will be used in real life

YET TECHNOLOGY DESIGN IS NOT VALUE-FREE

The way in which a technology is used is embedded in its design

FOR INSTANCE

A racist engineer will unvoidably design technologies which will be more prone to be used for racist purposes

KEEP CONTROL OF YOUR TECHNOLOGY

The more an engineer is unaware of her value mindset, the more her technology will be out of her control

BE AWARE OF YOUR VALUES

It is an ethical obligation for those who write computer algorithms to be aware of their value bias.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION

And above all, please, please, please, never use any longer the metaphor of knife to argue that computer scientists should not be considered ethically accountable for their algorithms

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

emi l io.mordin i@rtexpert .com