scholarly journals Ethics-based auditing of automated decision-making systems: intervention points and policy implications

AI & Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Mökander ◽  
Maria Axente
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Governance Mechanism ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Software Lifecycle ◽  
Automated Decision Making

AbstractOrganisations increasingly use automated decision-making systems (ADMS) to inform decisions that affect humans and their environment. While the use of ADMS can improve the accuracy and efficiency of decision-making processes, it is also coupled with ethical challenges. Unfortunately, the governance mechanisms currently used to oversee human decision-making often fail when applied to ADMS. In previous work, we proposed that ethics-based auditing (EBA)—that is, a structured process by which ADMS are assessed for consistency with relevant principles or norms—can (a) help organisations verify claims about their ADMS and (b) provide decision-subjects with justifications for the outputs produced by ADMS. In this article, we outline the conditions under which EBA procedures can be feasible and effective in practice. First, we argue that EBA is best understood as a ‘soft’ yet ‘formal’ governance mechanism. This implies that the main responsibility of auditors should be to spark ethical deliberation at key intervention points throughout the software development process and ensure that there is sufficient documentation to respond to potential inquiries. Second, we frame AMDS as parts of larger sociotechnical systems to demonstrate that to be feasible and effective, EBA procedures must link to intervention points that span all levels of organisational governance and all phases of the software lifecycle. The main function of EBA should, therefore, be to inform, formalise, assess, and interlink existing governance structures. Finally, we discuss the policy implications of our findings. To support the emergence of feasible and effective EBA procedures, policymakers and regulators could provide standardised reporting formats, facilitate knowledge exchange, provide guidance on how to resolve normative tensions, and create an independent body to oversee EBA of ADMS.

scholarly journals Ethics-Based Auditing of Automated Decision-Making Systems: Nature, Scope, and Limitations

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Mökander ◽  
Jessica Morley ◽  
Mariarosaria Taddeo ◽  
Luciano Floridi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Institutional Constraints ◽  
Governance Mechanism ◽  
New Governance ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Individual Privacy ◽  
Automated Decision Making

AbstractImportant decisions that impact humans lives, livelihoods, and the natural environment are increasingly being automated. Delegating tasks to so-called automated decision-making systems (ADMS) can improve efficiency and enable new solutions. However, these benefits are coupled with ethical challenges. For example, ADMS may produce discriminatory outcomes, violate individual privacy, and undermine human self-determination. New governance mechanisms are thus needed that help organisations design and deploy ADMS in ways that are ethical, while enabling society to reap the full economic and social benefits of automation. In this article, we consider the feasibility and efficacy of ethics-based auditing (EBA) as a governance mechanism that allows organisations to validate claims made about their ADMS. Building on previous work, we define EBA as a structured process whereby an entity’s present or past behaviour is assessed for consistency with relevant principles or norms. We then offer three contributions to the existing literature. First, we provide a theoretical explanation of how EBA can contribute to good governance by promoting procedural regularity and transparency. Second, we propose seven criteria for how to design and implement EBA procedures successfully. Third, we identify and discuss the conceptual, technical, social, economic, organisational, and institutional constraints associated with EBA. We conclude that EBA should be considered an integral component of multifaced approaches to managing the ethical risks posed by ADMS.

scholarly journals Using a coupled agent-based modeling approach to analyze the role of risk perception in water management decisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 2261-2278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin-Young Hyun ◽  
Shih-Yu Huang ◽  
Yi-Chen Ethan Yang ◽  
Vincent Tidwell ◽  
Jordan Macknick
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Complex Adaptive ◽  
San Juan River ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Engineered Systems

Abstract. Managing water resources in a complex adaptive natural–human system is a challenge due to the difficulty of modeling human behavior under uncertain risk perception. The interaction between human-engineered systems and natural processes needs to be modeled explicitly with an approach that can quantify the influence of incomplete/ambiguous information on decision-making processes. In this study, we two-way coupled an agent-based model (ABM) with a river-routing and reservoir management model (RiverWare) to address this challenge. The human decision-making processes is described in the ABM using Bayesian inference (BI) mapping joined with a cost–loss (CL) model (BC-ABM). Incorporating BI mapping into an ABM allows an agent's psychological thinking process to be specified by a cognitive map between decisions and relevant preceding factors that could affect decision-making. A risk perception parameter is used in the BI mapping to represent an agent's belief on the preceding factors. Integration of the CL model addresses an agent's behavior caused by changing socioeconomic conditions. We use the San Juan River basin in New Mexico, USA, to demonstrate the utility of this method. The calibrated BC-ABM–RiverWare model is shown to capture the dynamics of historical irrigated area and streamflow changes. The results suggest that the proposed BC-ABM framework provides an improved representation of human decision-making processes compared to conventional rule-based ABMs that do not take risk perception into account. Future studies will focus on modifying the BI mapping to consider direct agents' interactions, up-front cost of agent's decision, and upscaling the watershed ABM to the regional scale.

Cognitive Model of Team Collaboration: Macro-Cognitive Focus

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Warner ◽  
Michael Letsky ◽  
Michael Cowen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Distributed Teams ◽  
Descriptive Model ◽  
Team Collaboration ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes

The purpose of this paper is to describe a cognitive model of team collaboration emphasizing the human decision-making processes used during team collaboration. The descriptive model includes the domain characteristics, collaboration stages, meta- and macro cognitive processes and the mechanisms for achieving the stages and cognitive processes. Two experiments were designed to provide empirical data on the validity of the collaboration stages and cognitive processes of the model. Both face-to-face and asynchronous, distributed teams demonstrated behavior that supports the existence of the collaboration stages along with seven cognitive processes.

scholarly journals A Communal Language for Decision Making in Team Invasion Sports

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-129
Author(s):  
Michael Ashford ◽  
Andrew Abraham ◽  
Jamie Poolton
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Outcomes Research ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Team Sports ◽  
Naturalistic Decision Making ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Sports Coaches ◽  
Sports Coaching

Invasion team sports coaches are faced with the problem of developing players who, in any given situation, can make decisions that lead to successful outcomes. Research into human decision making has established three widely accepted perspectives, which sports coaching has used to understand player decision making and inform practice: information processing, ecological psychology, and naturalistic decision making. As a result, coaches are challenged with perspective-specific terminology and having to draw connections between similar findings that are explained in quite different ways. This conceptual paper presents a plainer account of player decision making by proposing a communal language within a conceptual framework for decision making in invasion team sports. It is hoped that the proposed language and framework will, together, facilitate knowledge exchange between researchers and coaches for the betterment of player development.

scholarly journals A Review: Artificial Intelligent Approach for Enhancing Adaptability in an Adaptive E-Learning Environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 37-42
Author(s):  
M.P.L. Perera
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Neural Networks ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Fuzzy Logic ◽  
Artificial Intelligent ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Intelligent Approach ◽  
Learning Frameworks

Adaptive e-learning the aim is to fill the gap between the pupil and the educator by discussing the needs and skills of individual learners. Artificial intelligence strategies that have the potential to simulate human decision-making processes are important around adaptive e-Learning. This paper explores the Artificial techniques; Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks, Bayesian Networks and Genetic Algorithms, highlighting their contributions to the notion of the adaptability in the sense of Adaptive E-learning. The implementation of Artificial Neural Networks to resolve problems in the current Adaptive e-learning frameworks have been established.

scholarly journals Automated Decision-Making and Environmental Impact Assessments: Decisions, Data Analysis and Predictions

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoe Nay ◽  
Anna Huggins ◽  
Felicity Deane
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Data Driven Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessments ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Automated Decision Making

This article critically examines the opportunities and challenges that automated decision-making (ADM) poses for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) as a crucial aspect of environmental law. It argues that while fully or partially automating discretionary EIA decisions is legally and technically problematic, there is significant potential for data-driven decision-making tools to provide superior analysis and predictions to better inform EIA processes. Discretionary decision-making is desirable for EIA decisions given the inherent complexity associated with environmental regulation and the prediction of future impacts. This article demonstrates that current ADM tools cannot adequately replicate human discretionary processes for EIAs—even if there is human oversight and review of automated outputs. Instead of fully or partially automating EIA decisions, data-driven decision-making can be more appropriately deployed to enhance data analysis and predictions to optimise EIA decision-making processes. This latter type of ADM can augment decision-making processes without displacing the critical role of human discretion in weighing the complex environmental, social and economic considerations inherent in EIA determinations.

Implementation of an Intelligent Model for Decision Making Based on CBR for Supply Chain Solution in Retail for a Cluster of Supermarkets

2019 ◽  
pp. 381-397
Author(s):  
Adrian F. Loera-Castro ◽  
Jaime Sanchez ◽  
Jorge Restrepo ◽  
Angel Fabián Campoya Morales ◽  
Julian I. Aguilar-Duque
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Case Based Reasoning ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
A Chain ◽  
The Times ◽  
Intelligent Model

The latter includes customizing the user interface, as well as the way the system retrieves and processes cases afterward. The resulting cases may be shown to the user in different ways, and/or the retrieved cases may be adapted. This chapter is about an intelligent model for decision making based on case-based reasoning to solve the existing problem in the planning of distribution in the supply chain between a distribution center and a chain of supermarkets. First, the authors mentioned the need for intelligent systems in the decision-making processes, where they are necessary due to the limitations associated with conventional human decision-making processes. Among them, human experience is very scarce, and humans get tired of the burden of physical or mental work. In addition, human beings forget the crucial details of a problem, and many of the times are inconsistent in their daily decisions.

scholarly journals Optimization of the Casualties’ Treatment Process: Blended Military Experiment

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 706
Author(s):  
Jan Hodický ◽  
Dalibor Procházka ◽  
Roman Jersák ◽  
Petr Stodola ◽  
Jan Drozd
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Deterministic Model ◽  
Dynamics Simulation ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Decision Making Factors ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
Simulation Paradigm ◽  
Decision Making Processes

At the battalion level, NATO ROLE1 medical treatment command focuses on the provision of primary health care being the very first physician and higher medical equipment intervention for casualty treatments. ROLE1 has paramount importance in casualty reductions, representing a complex system in current operations. This study deals with an experiment on the optimization of ROLE1 according to the key parameters of the numbers of physicians, the number of ambulances and the distance between ROLE1 and the current battlefield. The very first step in this study is to design and implement a model of current battlefield casualties. The model uses friction data generated from an already executed computer assisted exercise (CAX) while employing a constructive simulation to produce offense and defense scenarios on the flow of casualties. The next step in the study is to design and implement a model representing the transportation to ROLE1, its structure and behavior. The deterministic model of ROLE1, employing a system dynamics simulation paradigm, uses the previously generated casualty flows as the inputs representing human decision-making processes through the recorder CAX events. A factorial experimental design for the ROLE1 model revealed the recommended variants of the ROLE1 structure for both offensive and defensive operations. The overall recommendation is for the internal structure of ROLE1 to have three ambulances and three physicians for any kind of current operation and any distance between ROLE1 and the current battlefield within the limit of 20 min. This study provides novelty in the methodology of casualty estimations involving human decision-making factors as well as the optimization of medical treatment processes through experimentation with the process model.

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