The next session of the UvA Philosophy and Public Affairs colloquium will take place on Wednesday 12 September, 16.00-18.00

Hao Wang will present a paper entitled: The illusion of transparency: Algorithmic transparency as a disciplinary technique in credit scoring systems

Commentator: TBA

Abstract:

Access to credit has increasingly become an important part of our life. The algorithms of credit scoring are commonly seen as black-boxed, and it is often this inscrutability of decision-making that defies the legal and social challenge to its many problems, like discrimination or unfairness. Therefore, opening black boxes and getting access to their inner workings is considered the prime lever for a governance of credit scoring algorithms. However, based on two case studies, I will show that the algorithms of credit scoring are not always completely black-boxed as commonly understood. Contrarily, credit bureaus require enough transparency to exercise their disciplinary power, by controlling which part of algorithms are open and which are hidden. In this article, I will argue that such controlled algorithmic transparency will create an illusion of transparency that can discourage credit users' real participation in challenging problematic algorithms. Moreover, credit bureaus can make use of such illusory transparency of algorithms to better discipline credit subjects in order to realize their capital exploitation and even political dominance.

Hao Wang is a PhD researcher in philosophy department at University of Amsterdam, specializing in critical surveillance and privacy studies in the data-driven society. His doctoral thesis tries to explore how credit scoring systems as data-centric and AI technology tend to become a third way to normalize citizens in the Big Data age, besides law and moral rules. And how such new technique of governance will threaten democratic citizenship.