Proceeding With Caution: On a Thoughtful and Just Integration of Technology into Society

Abstract

This symposium will explore, from various perspectives, what it might mean to thoughtfully integrate technology into our society. The first presentation (Cratsley, Fast, & Boykin) will highlight the ways in which augmentation of social-contextual information may encourage people to endorse the use of technological surveillance tools that they might have otherwise rejected. In illuminating these vulnerabilities, this project encourages more thoughtful deliberation about the use of surveillance technologies in society. The second presentation (Kozlowski, Larivière, Sugimoto, & Monroe-White) demonstrates how algorithms may be used to help us uncover important inequities in society. In doing so, it highlights the perils of algorithmic bias as well as the promise of un-biased algorithms. The final project (Boykin, Rice & Brown) will discuss varying notions of fairness, and offer new tools for teaching algorithmic fairness to diverse learners and assessing their preferences between fairness definitions in machine-learning applications. These tools provide opportunities for future research that may help us improve machine-learning algorithms to better serve the interests of society at large, with a focus on incorporating the perspectives of diverse populations. Befriending Big Brother: The Role of Social Context in Endorsement of Surveillance Presenter: Maya J. Cratsley; - Presenter: Nathanael Fast; U. of Southern California Presenter: C. Malik Boykin; Brown U. Addressing Algorithmic Bias in the Interrogation of Inequitable Patterns in Scientific Discourse Presenter: Diego Kozlowski; U. of Luxembourg Presenter: Vincent Larivière; U. of Montreal Presenter: Cassidy Sugimoto; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Thema Monroe-White; Berry College-Campbell Sch. of Bus Teaching Algorithmic Literacy to Assess Preferences for Machine Learning Fairness Metrics Presenter: C. Malik Boykin; Brown U. Presenter: Vincent Rice; - Presenter: Thema Monroe-White; Berry College-Campbell Sch. of Bus Presenter: Sarah Brown; U. of Rhode Island