Episode #1- Tal Zarsky on the Ethics of Big Data and Predictive Analytics

This is the first in a series of podcast interviews being conducted as part of the Algocracy and Transhumanism project. In this episode I have the great privilege of interviewing Prof. Tal Zarsky, an academic based at the University of Haifa in Israel and one of the world’s leading experts on big data and predictive automated decision-making. You can download here or listen below. You can also subscribe via Stitcher or iTunes.

 

Show Notes

0:00-2:00 – Introduction

2:00-12:00 – Defining Big Data, Data-Mining and Predictive Analytics

12:00-17:00 – Understanding a predictive analytics systems

17:00 – 21:30 – Could we ever have an intelligent, automated decision-making system?

21:30 – 29:30 – Evaluating algorithmic governance systems: efficiency and fairness

29:30 – 36:00 – Could algocratic systems be less biased?

36:00 – 42:00 – Wouldn’t algocratic systems inherit the biases of programmers/society?

42:00 – 54:30 – The value of transparency in algocratic systems

54:30 – 1:00:1 – The gaming the system objection

 

Links

• Tal’s SSRN profile page with links to his papers

• Tal’s profile page at the University of Haifa

• ‘The Real Privacy Problem‘ by Evgeny Morozov

• ‘Transparent Predictions‘ by Tal Zarsky

• ‘Automated Prediction: Perception Policy and Law‘ by Tal Zarsky

• ‘Understanding Discrimination in the Scored Society‘ by Tal Zarsky

• Tal’s taxonomy of objections to automated decision-making

• ‘The Logical Space of Algocracy‘ – by John Danaher

• ‘The Threat of Algocracy: Reality, Resistance and Accommodation‘ by John Danaher

• ‘Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery‘ by Latanya Seeney

• ‘The Hidden Biases of Big Data‘ by Kate Crawford

• ‘The Right to Privacy‘ by Warren and Brandeis (Harvard Law Review 1890)