Building and Auditing Fair Algorithms

Abstract

Academics, activists, and regulators are increasingly urging companies to develop and deploy sociotechnical systems that are fair and unbiased. Achieving this goal, however, is complex: the developer must (1) deeply engage with social and legal facets of "fairness" in a given context, (2) develop software that concretizes these values, and (3) undergo an independent algorithm audit to ensure technical correctness and social accountability of their algorithms. To date, there are few examples of companies that have transparently undertaken all three steps.