Online discussion about algorithms and ethics
On September 3 and 4, the Russian NGO Teplitsa and the Goethe-Institut Moscow held their annual conference "Netz September" on innovations and technologies in the non-profit sector. Our expert Michael Puntschuh talked about algorithms and ethics and presented the Algo.Rules.
At the “Netz September” conference originally planned in Moscow, which due to the pandemic was held completely online, the technological challenges of algorithmic systems were discussed as well as approaches to solving the social problems they offer. The two-day program included a panel discussion entitled “Dance of Algorithms: ethical partnership or the struggle for objectivity?“ Besides Puntschuh, other participants included Liliya Zemnukhova from the European University of St. Petersburg, Fabio Chiusi from AlgorithmWatch, and Alexey Sidorenko, the director of “Teplitsa. Technologies for Social Good”. All participants agreed that it is important to demystify algorithmic systems: Even an algorithmic system makes mistakes and is always man-made.
Afterwards, Michael Puntschuh presented the Algo.rules in a workshop, which were also translated into Russian. The participants mainly discussed the transfer of the rules into practice. The already published practical guide and the soon available handbook for digital administration should contribute to this.
The discussions have shown us once again that the design of algorithmic systems for the common good is a transnational issue where we can learn a lot from each other and further develop existing rules together.
In addition to the conference, there was an accompanying program consisting of video discussions and reporting.
The conference for “rewatch” can be found here.
In addition, our expert speaks again here in an interview on the topic:
The Algo.rules are a catalogue of formal criteria that should be observed in order to enable and facilitate a socially beneficial design and verification of algorithmic systems. We developed them together with the Bertelsmann Foundation.