Algorithmic Transparency – a way to build trust

by ⋅ Leave a Comment

Today, countless tech-startups are focused on building digital platforms and solutions and at the center stage of these ventures are algorithms. These algorithms facilitate millions or even billions of decisions every day – ranging from search-engine algorithms deciding what shows up on your Google-search to personal-preference algorithms giving suggestions on what clothes you should buy. In this way, they make life a lot easier for you. But many people still have a negative association to algorithms and in this blog post, I will explore the reasons behind this distrust and what is being done to prevent it.

Before I continue, it’s important to highlight that this blog post is largely based on the tech-startup Wolt’s “Algorithmic Transparency Report” (Wolt, 2022). It sparked my interest and gave me the idea to write this blog post.

Back to the point, the distrust of algorithms is mainly due to their lack of transparency (which is stated in the report mentioned above). People are generally unaware of how algorithms work and what role they play in the daily workings of today’s companies. For some, the idea that an algorithm can tell what your favorite type of food is or what concert you are most likely to go to this summer is seen as scary. It’s almost as if someone else is deciding these things for you, isn’t it?

This is why it’s important to talk about and promote algorithmic transparency, so that people can understand what algorithms are and how they are implemented by the majority of today’s companies. In the report by Wolt, there is a reference to a draft on digital rights by the European Commission, stating that:

“Everyone should be empowered to
benefit from the advantages of artificial
intelligence by making their own, informed
choices in the digital environment, while
being protected against risks and harm
to one’s health, safety and fundamental
rights.”

I put “making their own, informed choices” in bold because it relates to algorithmic transparency and the whole essence of this blog post. The only way we can reassure people of the safety and benefits of algorithms is by being transparent. Explaining why we use algorithms, when they are used and also when they aren’t used. It’s really as important to know that when an algorithm is suggesting the best search result for you, the same algorithm is also hiding other results from you.

In the end, the only way we can build an equal, fair and democratic digital environment is when people are aware of algorithms and their role in facilitating countless decisions every day. Only by being informed can people understand their own presence in the digital world and how algorithms use your activity to infer things about you.

STHML Tech Meet Up event 13rd October

by ⋅ 8 Comments

A week ago I joined with some of classmates at the STHML Tech Meet Up event. The event was totally crowded and air ventilation was not that good. The event was divided to two pieces, the first part was a overview of this month’s biggest investments in Stockholm start-ups. Some of those start-ups came to the stage to tell about their business and chatting with presenters. For me that part was quite boring because generally the presenters just chatted at the stage without any goal.

At the second part some investors came on to the stage and told something about themselves. After that started real pitching where some start-ups tried to convince the investors about their ideas or business opportunities. The first pitcher’s idea was to solve a refugee problems with a mobile application where they can communicate, get some activities and information. I personally liked the idea but I am a bit worried about how they can get enough income because that segment’s purchasing power is really low. After that, there was some other pitches which I can’t remember clearly because I didn’t find them enough interesting for me.

But I can clearly remember Gymgo’s pitch which didn’t go that well. Gymgo’s idea was to create universal gym membership which means that you can use any gym anywhere you want. After one minute presentation one of the investors said “PASS!” that was like a punch in the pither’s face. The investors commented the idea like usually people don’t want to use all gyms because they just pick the closest one. At the end of Gymgo presentation the pitcher presented that Gymgo covers other activities like hiking, skiing, climbing etc. So the investors started asking “Why the name is GymGO when it is not for gyms only?!”. That was a good point. I think the main idea of GymGo is good but I assume that the prize for customers will be really high, it will be really hard to get all gyms and other activity providers into it and also people really rarely need worldwide gym or activity membership. If you have money for travelling around the world you have money for a random gym visit in a random place, and maybe it is also cheaper.

IMG_0522IMG_0522

After GymGo it was Zeifie pitcher’s turn. Zeifie is a security app or device which you can use when someone following you and you are afraid to be robbed or raped. I liked idea and also investors generally liked it. One of the last pitches was a random guy from the audience who wanted to tell his idea. The idea was that everyone can be an advertiser so you can post advertisements to your facebook, twitter, linkedIn or other social networks. So he explained his idea like that “if you have 300 friends and you post one advertisement to your facebook, you can get like 2-3 euros from advertisers if you can reach those peoples.” The investors and my opinion is that the idea might work once but when some of my friends start to spamming my facebook with advertisements, I will block or remove him/her. And that idea will probably lead for whole facebook or twitter being just full of advertisements because all just keeps spamming them so idea can’t work like that. I also think that advertisers outcome will be bigger than income. The guy who presented the idea was totally convinced about his idea and he couldn’t understand why people didn’t like his idea.