The bigot in the machine

Sometimes I like to highlight someone else's blog post I enjoyed, and this one by Barbara Fister is double value, since it is a transcript of a talk for New York Technical Services Librarians, and you can either read the transcript or watch the talk (or both). It is called The bigot in the machine (published June 2020) and the abstract reads "We are living in an “age of algorithms.” Vast quantities of information are collected, sorted, shared, combined, and acted on by proprietary black boxes. These systems use machine learning to build models and make predictions from data sets that may be out of date, incomplete, and biased. We will explore the ways bias creeps into information systems, take a look at how “big data,” artificial intelligence and machine learning often amplify bias unwittingly, and consider how these systems can be deliberately exploited by actors for whom bias is a feature, not a bug. Finally, we’ll discuss ways we can work with our communities to create a more fair and just information environment."
Blog post at https://barbarafister.net/political/the-bigot-in-the-machine/#more-899

Here is the recording https://youtu.be/PBixDFVfekM There is five minutes of introduction, 55 minutes of the talk, and then Barbara responds to questions.