Algorithm dynamics: Asking Google, Facebook and others to be 'fair'

What do you learn when learning about Machine Learning? That in personalising services, massive networks like Google, Facebook are promoting extremism and inequality. Two computer scientists have built an antidote in the hope that people will become aware and eventually demand fair personalisation

Online entities are using algorithms to shape individuals’ decisions without them even knowing it. This is leading to extreme personalisation, which is good for business but not for society

Computer scientists from EPFL in Switzerland, Elisa Celis and Nisheeth Vishnoi have built a prototype which shows how to de-bias algorithms

But as powerful as Google, Facebook and the rest of big tech are, what good is such a prototype? A lot, apparently

As eight states in India face elections this year, people should be wary of being steered into echo chambers of reinforced media and political content on these algo-driven massive networks

Pervasive personalisation. Two words that describe how algorithms shape our views and behaviour and determine what we see, buy, read online. There’s so much value in personalisation that tech companies are giving away algorithmic tools for free; the actual money lies in the application, in manipulating large population groups. And as this happens, much of societal biases are reinforced online.

Elisa Celis and Nisheeth Vishnoi, professors at Ềcole Polytechnique Fẽdẽrale de Lausanne, Switzerland, propose a framework to de-bias algorithms. They’ve built a prototype for ‘Balanced Search’, to demonstrate how it’s possible to mitigate extreme views and deliver diverse content using novel algorithms.

AUTHOR

Seema Singh

Seema has over two decades of experience in journalism. Before starting The Ken, Seema wrote “Myth Breaker: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and the Story of Indian Biotech”, published by HarperCollins in May 2016. Prior to that, she was a senior editor and bureau chief for Bangalore with Forbes India, and before that she wrote for Mint. Seema has written for numerous international publications like IEEE-Spectrum, New Scientist, Cell and Newsweek. Seema is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a MacArthur Foundation Research Grantee.

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