TU Wien Informatics

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When Computers Decide: Recommendations on Machine-Learned Automated Decisions

  • 2018-03-19
  • Social Responsibility

Joint report of Informatics Europe Ethics Working Group and ACM Europe on automated decision making (ADM) including policy recommendations.

Based on the idea, that scientists must not “outsource” important ethical questions related to ADM systems, Informatics Europe in cooperation with Association of Computing Machinery Europe (EUACM) has launched a working group on Ethics. The group has worked on a white paper that focuses on wide-ranging implications of computer-based decision systems.

The recently published report reviews the principal implications of the coming widespread adoption of machine-learned automated decision making with a particular emphasis on its technical, ethical, legal, economic, societal and educational ramifications. The authors also give a number of recommendations that policy makers might wish to consider. Hannes Werthner, Dean of the Faculty of Informatics, is one of 11 international authors of the comprehensive report.

Starting a dialogue among disciplines

Excerpt of the authors’ conclusion:

“Automated decision making is not just a scientific challenge; it is simultaneously a political, economic, technological, cultural, educational and even philosophical challenge. Because all these aspects are interconnected, it is inappropriate to focus on any one feature of the much larger picture.

The computing professions and technology industries, which together are driving these advances forward, have an obligation to start a conversation among all affected disciplines and institutions whose expertise is relevant and required to fully understand these complex issues.”

Download full report: “When Computers Decide: European Recommendations on Machine-Learned Automated Decision Making” (PDF)

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