Measuring algorithmically infused societies

Measuring algorithmically infused societies. Nature. 30 June 2021.

Wow wow wow. Such a great perspective paper centering some of our collective concerns that while algorithmic tuning of processes affords many efficiencies, entrenched biases and inequalities can also get exacerbated. We’ve been doing this long enough for us to start measuring some of the structural developments in algorithmically-infused societies. The authors zoom in on three challenges to measuring what’s going on in such societies — not enough measurement coverage of the problem space, a host of problems that crop up with mis-measurement, and the limited frameworks for us to even grok this problem set at all.