Article on Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Racism

Gideon Christian from the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary published an article on Slaw.ca today entitled Artificial Intelligence, Algorithmic Racism and the Canadian Criminal Justice System that looks at how data used to train AI tools can perpetuate biases:

"Recidivism risk assessment is the process of determining the likelihood that an accused, convicted, or incarcerated persons will reoffend. The process is aimed at assisting in the determination of the appropriate limitation on the freedom of the subject. With innovation in technology especially in the area of artificial intelligence (AI), recidivism risk assessment tools built on AI technology are now well-developed and used in the criminal justice system. Algorithmic tools are increasingly being used in the Canadian criminal justice system in pre-trial, sentencing, and post-sentencing phases in predicting the future criminal behaviour of accused, convicted, or incarcerated persons. The increasing use of AI technology in recidivism risk assessment in the criminal justice system raises many legal issues. I will discuss three of such issues in this blog post."

"The first issue relates to what I refer to as algorithmic racism. This arises from the use of historical data in training AI risk assessment tools. This has the tendency to perpetuate historical bias which are replicated in the risk assessments by these AI tools. The second issue relates to the legality of the use of AI risk assessments by judges in sentencing decisions. I argue that AI risk assessment based on data from a general population has the tendency to deprive a convict of the right to an individualized sentence based on accurate information. Third, there is the problem with the proprietary nature of the methodology used in the AI risk assessment tools. This is especially the case where offenders challenging their criminal sentence seeks access to these proprietary trade secrets."