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The UK’s data protection watchdog said he is “very much in favour of algorithmic transparency” amid government proposals to loosen existing regulations and deliver a Brexit dividend.
Westminster sources, including parliamentarians and civil servants, have told Sky News they see growing tensions in Whitehall over the future direction of the UK’s data protection regime.
The issue is particularly fraught when it comes to supporting the artificial intelligence (AI) industry and the potential economic and security benefits it could bring, while ensuring that the technology doesn’t outpace protections for individual rights.
In an interview with Sky News, the new information commissioner, John Edwards, stressed the value of making sure that algorithms which impact people’s lives can be properly scrutinised.
Algorithmic transparency
It followed a scandal in which thousands of angry students saw their A-level results downgraded by an allegedly biased algorithm.
Mr Edwards cautioned: “When you look at the competition between the protection of commercial interests and intellectual property in the US, and transparency, IP has won over.”
Sentenced by an algorithm
He cited the case of Eric Loomis, a man sentenced to six years imprisonment with the assistance of a proprietary algorithm that found he was a high risk for reoffending.
Loomis appealed against this sentence in a case that went all the way to the US Supreme Court, but ultimately was not allowed to review the algorithm.
This was “because the court valued the commercial interest of the algorithm owner over the need for that person to have transparency of what factors had contributed to that sentencing decision”.
“Now I think that is patently wrong and I would certainly not support that here. I think regulators have a job to rebalance information…
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Source : skynews
