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Sentencing is harsher the 30 minutes before lunch then after lunch. We need to have AI run everything to prevent bias.
by sadris 8y ago
Sentencing is harsher the 30 minutes before lunch then after lunch.
We need to have AI run everything to prevent bias.
- lainga 8y agoCan the AI just stagger lunchtimes?
- tzs 8y agoThe sentencing study that found those differences was looking at parole decisions. It is not at all clear that the difference before and after lunch (and a similar difference after an afternoon break) shows any bias. A later paper showed that you would get the same effect from a simple, rational time management approach. Cases that are granted parole tend to take longer to decide than those that are denied parole. If the judges can estimate before the hearing which type of case it is likely to be (from things such as the thickness of the case file, what kind of representation the petition has, etc.), they would tend to schedule the cases that look like they will take longer first thing in the morning, or after lunch, or after the afternoon break, and they would schedule the shorter cases closer to break times. This would result in more granting of parole in the morning and after breaks than before breaks. Here's an article about this [1]. [1] https://mindhacks.com/2016/12/08/rational-judges-not-extraneous-factors-in-decisions/ https://mindhacks.com/2016/12/08/rational-judges-not-extrane...
- iguy 8y agoYup. And this should have been blindingly obvious to everyone involved in writing/reviewing/editing the original paper -- the effect size reported was just far too large. <10% parole before and >70% after lunch? That's not a mood swing. Especially since a lot of parole cases are very very routine, and not really close judgement calls.
- ruytlm 8y agoIf this was at all realistic, we'd also see similar effects in people in other fields - bus drivers more likely to crash before lunch, etc. That we don't see such an outrageous difference implies that the original study is not tracking the relevant variable when it looks at before/after lunch.
- jrumbut 8y agoHow do you prevent the AI from learning the lunchtime rule? Or should we leave the lunchtime factor out and just dilute the unfairness across every sentence?
- sadris 8y agoAIs don't get hangry because they haven't eaten.