Highlights: Addressing fairness in the context of artificial intelligence

When society uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help build judgments about individuals, fairness and equity are critical considerations. On Nov. 12, Brookings Fellow Nicol Turner-Lee sat down with Solon Barocas of Cornell University, Natasha Duarte of the Center for Democracy & Technology, and Karl Ricanek of the University of North Carolina Wilmington to discuss artificial intelligence in the context of societal bias, technological testing, and the legal system. Artificial intelligence is an element of many everyday services and applications, including electronic devices, online search engines, and social media platforms. In most cases, AI provides positive utility for consumers--such as when machines automatically detect credit card fraud or help doctors assess health care risks. However, there is a smaller percentage of cases, such as when AI helps inform decisions on credit limits or mortgage lending, where technology has a higher potential to augment historical biases.