aes18 International Evaluation Conference

Increasingly decisions about our lives are being made by algorithms. This is the case across government, large corporates and social networking platforms. Algorithms at Centrelink decide whether you are targeted for debt recovery, while those at the bank decide whether you get a home loan and Facebook decides what 'fake news' will appear in your feed. In some cases, such as Centrelink robodebt and Facebook fake news scandals, the poor outcomes have been widely and publicly criticised. In many other cases, you are probably not even aware if, and how, an algorithm is making decisions about your life.  

This session explores the ways in which algorithms shape our everyday lives and the role evaluation has to play in safeguarding us from these unseen decision makers.