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'Black box' doesn't mean 'numbers in a computer', it means 'nobody can explain to me precisely why I was rejected'. A score calculated from an obvious formula i
by bigDinosaur 4y ago
'Black box' doesn't mean 'numbers in a computer', it means 'nobody can explain to me precisely why I was rejected'. A score calculated from an obvious formula is fine (regulations permitting) since you (or a regulator or court or the institution) can establish precisely why you were rejected. A black box system is one in which this cannot be established by any person.
This is obviously bad for both legal and moral reasons. Legally you may be (unintentionally) violating anti-discrimination laws. Morally you may be setting up a system that arbitrarily denies people who are otherwise deserving with little to no recourse.
- sokoloff 4y agoBy that definition, hiring and dating appear to be black boxes.
- bigDinosaur 4y agoIn both of those you can receive plausible explanations from anyone honest or introspective enough. If you think that all decisions are actually black box emotions that can't be introspected or something then yes, they would be total black boxes, and I suppose the goal would be to minimise that in any system we build that has to discriminate.