Discrimination

From algorithms that target ads and sort the public based on any number of other social and economic demographics to facial recognition systems where biases can be built into the code, discrimination in the digital age is perpetuating and worsening systemic inequalities. The proliferation of machine learning and other components of artificial intelligence across government and the private sectors threatens to exacerbate the problem as automated decision-making further shapes outcomes across our society. Many tech companies are rarely accountable under the law for these discriminatory outcomes, even as existing anti-discrimination laws covering areas such as housing and employment should protect the public, particularly historically marginalized communities. To address the concerns, governments can adapt existing non-discrimination laws to digital technologies, audit government use of AI and other related technologies to reduce discriminatory outcomes, and develop new regulatory measures to increase transparency and develop guardrails for how companies utilize algorithms and AI.