How a Machine Learns Prejudice

If artificial intelligence takes over our lives, it probably won't involve humans battling an army of robots that relentlessly apply Spock-like logic as they physically enslave us. Instead, the machine-learning algorithms that already let AI programs recommend a movie you'd like or recognize your friend's face in a photo will likely be the same ones that one day deny you a loan, lead the police to your neighborhood or tell your doctor you need to go on a diet. And since humans create these algorithms, they're just as prone to biases that could lead to bad decisions--and worse outcomes. These biases create some immediate concerns about our increasing reliance on artificially intelligent technology, as any AI system designed by humans to be absolutely "neutral" could still reinforce humans' prejudicial thinking instead of seeing through it. Law enforcement officials have already been criticized, for example, for using computer algorithms that allegedly tag black defendants as more likely to commit a future crime, even though the program was not designed to explicitly consider race.