5 ms·
At the end of the day, algorithms are industrial equipment, like a bulldozer. If a bulldozer runs over a bunch of people, saying "the operator doesn't know how
by jjk166 5y ago
At the end of the day, algorithms are industrial equipment, like a bulldozer. If a bulldozer runs over a bunch of people, saying "the operator doesn't know how to correctly operate a bulldozer" doesn't get you off the hook, if anything it makes it worse.
- mabub24 5y agoI agree. When people act with disbelief at the results of an algo they've made, they're either sincere, in which case they don't actually understand the thing they have built (which would suggest a lack of competence, which many are terrified to admit); or, they're lying, and attempting to absolve themselves of any responsibility for those outcomes. As soon it comes in contact with a human, you don't get to wipe your hands of the outcome if you dislike it. You have to own the successes and the failures.
- Spivak 5y agoIt is really bonkers to me that we don't design systems to be introspectable and replay-able. If you have a system relies on sampling from a random distribution to make decisions then you really ought to make the whole system deterministic and provide it with a single logged entropy source so when something goes south you can replay exactly what happened.