Algorithms, AI, and Race in Digital America

Catalog description

It is challenging to escape from algorithmic automated learning machines within our digital economy. While we interact with these processes daily, we often do not question how they work or impact us as people or societies. Algorithms are now used for everything from reviewing resumes for job openings to determining if an inmate in prison gets parole. While many have accepted algorithms as a necessity in the technological world, as a society, we do not acknowledge biases within machine learning and AI that lead to suboptimal decision-making and deepen inequities along racial divides. With a critical lens focusing on race, SLAM 3330 aims to explore the uses of these technologies and challenge the status quo to explore how we can improve these processes and outcomes as a society.