Robert Elliott Smith: Are algorithms inherently biased?
Algorithms are everywhere, but are they coded in such a way that makes them racist bigots that are easily manipulated, without us even knowing?
In this week’s podcast, we speak Robert Elliott Smith, an expert in evolutionary algorithms and researcher of artificial intelligence.
His latest book, Rage Inside the Machine: The Prejudice of Algorithms, and How to Stop the Internet Making Bigots of Us All (£20, Bloomsbury), explores how the harmful effects of bigotry, greed, segregation and mass coercion are finding their way into the AI that runs our lives, without us even realising it.
He tells us how powerful algorithms have been manipulated to divide people, why algorithmic bias has a dark history in the field of eugenics, and what we can do to fight back against the insidious influences of social media.
Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Listen to more episodes of the Science Focus Podcast:
- What's the deal with algorithms? – Hannah Fry
- Does data discriminate against women? – Caroline Criado Perez
- Is racism creeping into science? – Angela Saini
- What happens when maths goes horribly, horribly wrong? – Matt Parker
- How technology is changing politics – Jamie Susskind
- There's no such thing as Blue Monday – Sir David Spiegelhalter
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