An interesting article born out of the Data for Black Lives conference describes how Police departments use predictive algorithms to optimize where officers patrol. As the article says, “Say hello to criminal risk assesssment algorithms.”
Risk assessment is a use case that Machine Learning has been applied to for years in the Financial Services industry to evaluate credit ratings and lending. Now it is increasingly coming under evaluation in scenarios such as crime and even social mobility. Recently, China unveiled a new, “Social Credit” system which would prohibit certain individuals from traveling freely and all citizens will have a single number ranking by 2020.
What do you think about the implications of this technology? What guardrails should be in place? Or are we destined to a future reminiscent of Black Mirror?