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SXSW 2017

We Sued For Your Bots

Forget chatbots: Hello, fairnessbots. Did the employment Web site send your application to the bottom of the pile? Were there apartments for sale that your search never found? Researchers, activists, and journalists are now using bots, scrapers, and sock-puppets on your behalf, testing opaque Internet platforms to ensure that you are treated fairly. Exciting new work in machine learning and computational journalism answers these questions. Yet the people who do it are stymied by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the antiquated US anti-hacking law. As lead plaintiff and counsel, we'll tell the story of the 2016 ACLU challenge to the law, then speak to the future of fairness and its enemies.

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Takeaways

  1. What's the current state of knowledge about illegal or undesirable discrimination by Internet platforms?
  2. What new techniques like "fairnessbots" and "algorithm auditing" are important to ensure a fair future for the Internet?
  3. What new legal regimes are necessary to safeguard civil and constitutional rights as so many of our activities are automated and moved online?

Speakers

Organizer

Christian Sandvig, Professor, University of Michigan

Meta Information:

  • Tags: algorithm, hacking, law
  • Event: SXSW
  • Format: Dual
  • Track: Intelligent Future
  • Track 2
  • Level: Advanced
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