Algorithmic governance is emerging in justice systems worldwide without clear oversight

Evidence

The larger implications for the management of law, crime, and policing are as yet unclear. This radically privatized production of social knowledge compares poorly with the historical processes for generating social knowledge discussed earlier in the chapter. There are growing concerns in the United States that, whatever else it is, algorithmic processing cannot be a substitute for human judges’ discretion exercised on behalf of the state. In February 2018, the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice launched a review of the ethics of using algorithms in justice systems. Meanwhile, a very different vision is emerging in China, that of an “intelligent court” that will use “cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence … to promote modernization of [the] trial system and judgement capability.” Contested or not, a new version of social governance is emerging from the daily operations of data colonialism. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 447

Categorization

• XREF: China’s ‘intelligent court’ connects to the reader’s broader attention/platform surveillance reading and to literature on algorithmic governance as a rival to state-centered Weberian justice. — connects to: Model opacity makes algorithmic decisions unaccountable in courtrooms — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 61; Computational governance’s metric requirements force a mimicry-based view of humanity. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1392; Algorithms can reduce legal-system bias by making decisions free of human judgment foibles. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 1140 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Model opacity makes algorithmic decisions unaccountable in courtrooms #expands (0.92) — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 61
• Decisions made by legal algorithms need contestation rights comparable to human appeals #expands (0.82) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1203
• Algorithms can reduce legal-system bias by making decisions free of human judgment foibles. #contradicts (0.80) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 1140
• Computational governance’s metric requirements force a mimicry-based view of humanity. #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1392
• Abolitionist analysis exposes the prison-industrial-AI complex as one system #expands (0.73) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 2601