But with limited public-health guidance and so many factors at play, the algorithms could also end up being blamed when things go south. But algorithms are already playing a key role in deciding vaccine deployments. And in cases such as Stanford’s, they overlook or ignore the potential weaknesses that could critically undermine the algorithms’ results. People whose lives depend on the algorithm’s conclusions are asked to simply trust that the system, however it works, is working as intended. “If we lived in a thriving, economically just society, people might trust algorithms.

Source: Washington Post December 23, 2020 17:34 UTC