The Dangers of Automating Social Programs

Ask poverty attorney Joanna Green Brown for an example of a client who fell through the cracks and lost social services benefits they may have been eligible for because of a program driven by artificial intelligence (AI), and you will get an earful. There was the "highly educated and capable" client who had had heart failure and was on a heart and lung transplant wait list. The questions he was presented in a Social Security benefits application "didn't encapsulate his issue" and his child subsequently did not receive benefits. "It's almost impossible for an AI system to anticipate issues related to the nuance of timing," Green Brown says. Then there's the client who had to apply for a Medicaid recertification, but misread a question and received a denial a month later.