Power, for All: How It Really Works and Why It's Everyone's Business by Julie Battilana & Tiziana Casciaro

Author:Julie Battilana & Tiziana Casciaro [Battilana, Julie & Casciaro, Tiziana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Leadership, Self-Help, Personal Growth, Success, Motivational
ISBN: 9781982141653
Google: 8fkDEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2021-08-31T23:19:38.261953+00:00

HOW THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION SHUFFLED THE CARDS

One of the earliest traces of an algorithm was found in Iraq, inscribed on a Sumerian clay tablet dating back to around 2500 BCE. It consisted of a set of instructions for the task of division.16 At its root, an “algorithm” is just another word for a set of directions.17 Algorithms have evolved a great deal since their early appearance, and today, the word is most commonly used to refer to “a sequence of instructions telling a computer what to do.”18 These instructions can be input by humans. For instance, a coder might write an algorithm telling the computer to generate the shortest walking route between point A and point B. But in the era of big data enabled by the digital revolution, computers can be made to write their own instructions based on large sets of data inputs and outputs provided by the coders. For example, if the coder feeds the computer a list of divisions, without the computer knowing what division is, the machine will spot the pattern and learn to replicate it on its own. This is what people mean by “machine learning,” an application of artificial intelligence (AI) that has tremendously accelerated our ability to process and learn from massive amounts of data, and to optimize and increase the efficiency, precision, and predictive accuracy of machines.19

Digital technology is producing astounding progress, improving our lives in countless ways. Coupled with big data, machine-learning algorithms can learn from thousands of medical images to recognize a cancerous mass in human tissue earlier and more accurately than the human eye can.20 Mobile health technology is improving and reducing the cost of transmitting health-care information, delivering patient care, and monitoring medication adherence, with the potential to democratize access to health solutions in rural areas in low- and middle-income countries worldwide.21 And technology’s benefits go well beyond medicine. With the aid of its innovative tools and processes, we are improving the productivity of natural resources and sources of energy, the safety and performance of motor vehicles and industrial materials, the availability and affordability of information and consumer goods, and myriad other conveniences and opportunities to satisfy our need for safety and self-esteem.

Algorithmic decision-making is improving our lives in large part because it uses vastly greater amounts of data than humans can process, and it is consistent, precise, and reliable in ways that people aren’t. As a result, it has the potential to benefit people whom human decision makers, consciously or unconsciously, discriminate against. For example, a study of automated loan underwriting showed that it can be more accurate than human underwriting in predicting defaults, resulting in a higher rate of approved loans, especially for underserved customers.22

Alongside this progress and potential for empowerment, however, digital technology and AI have also affected two critical aspects of the distribution of power that require our vigilance and oversight: the control of algorithms and the control of personal information.

First, control of algorithms is critical because they can be biased, and when

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