DES[ign]

The readings on the algorithmic automation of welfare last week led to a lively conversation on the recasting of social work as information processing, the role of tech corporations in designing the “digital welfare state”, and the institutional and physical architectures (the poorhouse) that preceded and prefigured its workings. As a group, we decided to delve more into the regulations around automated decision making systems, to discuss ethical frameworks for their design, and to also consider the role of humans in these systems.

The three short readings below tackle these topics:

• Canadian policy on automated decision-making: https://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=32592
• The Open Roboethics Institute —the nonprofit think tank founded and directed by AJung– toolkit for AI ethics. Along with the attached paper, please also take a look at this short video: http://www.openroboethics.org/ai-toolkit/
• An article on “heteromation” by Hamid Ekbia and Bonnie Nardi (Heteromation and its (dis)contents: The invisible division of labor between humans and machines. First Monday, [S.l.], May 2014. Available at: https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5331/4090).