Monday, October 12, 2020

Thinking About the Algorithms in Our Lives

My wife and I use these fitness trackers, ours are made by Garmin, to keep track of our activity during the day. Each day the devices give us a goal for how many steps we should take that day.  The goal goes up or down depending on how many steps we did on the previous day. I think. Maybe.

Being the computer guy that I am I keep thinking about how the algorithm actually works. Is it a simple algorithm based on some sort of average or does it have some amount of smarts? Does it take several days activity into account or just the previous days? Like so many things in our lives the algorithm is completely opaque to users.

Google Page Rank, the algorithms that run on the computers controlling our cars, and the software John Deere uses to control the equipment they make. (see article linked below for way this opacity is a problem for some) are all secret. Why?

Well, various companies have various reasons for keeping their algorithms secret. Competitive advantage is the reason for some. For many it is to keep people from “gaming the system.” Google, and other search engines, don’t want people to find ways to get unfairly high placement in searches. I suspect some of that is involved in my Garmin’s secrecy. For others, it is about keeping control of the how the systems them make are run – often for the sake of safety. That’s why many companies don’t want their software “messed with.”

How good or bad this is for the consumer is quite up for debate. There are solid arguments on both side. Arguably, the right thing depends on the situation in many (perhaps most) cases. These are issues we need to think about going forward. People who write software and create algorithms have a responsibility to make the right decisions about secrecy or openness. The decisions have to be about more than just money as well.

Do you discuss these issues with students? I think we need to do so.

Farmers Fight John Deere Over Who Gets to Fix an $800,000 Tractor

No comments: