Businesses increasingly utilize proprietary algorithms to make decisions that have significant impacts on humans.Footnote 1 Amazon, Google, YouTube, and Facebook tailor what users see. Uber and Lyft match passengers with drivers and set prices. Driver-assist technology—available in most new-model cars—aids drivers with steering and braking. Though each of these examples comprises its own complicated technology, they share a core foundation: a data-trained set of rules (i.e., the output of the process often called “machine learning”) that implement a decision with little or no human intermediation.Footnote 2 In response to the rise of autonomous decision algorithms and their reliance on user-provided data, a growing number of computer scientists and governmental bodies have called for transparency under the broad concept of “algorithmic accountability.”Footnote 3 In particular, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation 2016(679) (hereinafter GDPR),Footnote 4 part of which regulates the uses of automated algorithmic decision systems. GDPR came into force on May 25, 2018, and has impacted businesses (e.g., Facebook or Google) that process the personally identifiable information of European Union (EU) residents.Footnote 5
Because of its ambiguity, GDPR raises questions about how business enterprises should behave with respect to algorithmic accountability. In particular, several authors debate whether GDPR—in addition to bestowing “a right to be forgotten”Footnote 6—grants EU residents another novel kind of legal protection, a so-called right to explanation.Footnote 7 If GDPR grants such a right, companies that process the personal data of EU residents have a legal duty to provide their data subjects (e.g., service users, customers, employees, or applicants) with meaningful explanations about how their automated algorithmic decision-making and/or profiling systems reach final decisions.
This debate, though concerned primarily with how to interpret the legal statements in the GDPR, raises a normative ethics question. Debate participants assume, as we shall explain in the next section, that there ought to be some kind of a right to explanation. And yet what, if anything, justifies such a right is underexplored. In this article, we search for a philosophical foundation for that right, and because we explore the moral or ethical foundations of a right to explanation—and not legal ones—the implications of our work go beyond the European context.Footnote 8
Section 1 explains what we mean by an algorithm in this article. Section 2 introduces the debate over whether GDPR grants a legal right to explanation. Section 3 is a defense of a right to explanation. Our argument can be sketched as follows:
Premise 1: Informed consent in the context of algorithmic decision-making—especially for secondary, noncontextual, and unpredictable uses Footnote 9 —is incomplete without an assurance of trust.
Premise 2: The readiness of firms to respect a right to (ex post) explanation is unique in helping give an assurance (or evidence) of trust to users. Conclusion: Hence a right to (ex post) explanation uniquely helps to complete informed consent.
Section 4 explores possible models of explanation that companies can provide to data subjects. In section 5, objections are addressed.
1. WHAT IS AN ALGORITHM?
An algorithm is a set of rules and procedures that leads to a decision. Businesses have been using algorithms for a long time. What is new—and what we focus on in this article—are algorithms that have their roots in data-driven machine learning that results in decisions being implemented with no (or little) human intermediation. Think about applying for a credit card (e.g., Apple Card) on a smartphone. An algorithm will offer the terms of the credit card issuance (in particular, a credit limit) or denial. The transactional nature of this example is not central to our argument for a right to explanation, but it is helpful in understanding the salient components of an algorithmic decision process.
Figure 1 gives a schematic view of the components. A machine learning–derived algorithm involves the combination of code and data. Much of the advances in recent artifical intelligence (AI) have resulted from a convergence of solution and optimization techniques (code) and a massive increase in the quantity, frequency, and granularity of observations (data). By “transactional,” we mean that an individual (i) interacts with the algorithm by providing input data xi (e.g., applying for a credit card), causing the algorithm to “run,” which produces a decision that has impact yi (credit card is approved; credit limit and terms are set). Separating the “algorithm” from the “run” step is useful as we argue how a right to explanation applies.
Figure 1: Schematic of a Decision Algorithm Highlighting Individual i Who Provides Input xi and Experiences Outcome yi
Consider the following scenario. David H. Hansson and his wife, Jamie H. Hansson, applied for the Apple Card—developed in partnership with Goldman Sachs—when it was launched in August 2019. The husband received a credit limit that was twenty times higher than the wife’s, even though they file joint tax returns and her credit score was actually higher than his. When the applicant contacted Apple’s customer service department, a representative blamed the result on its black box algorithm, which automatically decides such issues as credit limits. Subsequently, Goldman Sachs shared a statement stating “We have not and will not make decisions based on factors like gender.”Footnote 10 But it is well known that machine learning–derived algorithms can discriminate based on gender or race without using such data as classifiers.Footnote 11
Do Apple and Goldman Sachs have an obligation to provide a meaningful explanation to Jamie H. Hansson? The Equal Credit Opportunity Act—with philosophical foundations based on equal treatment and fairness—already demands that financial firms provide decision rationales to customers in the United States. Equal treatment is an important moral value upholding a right to explanation for cases like credit card limits or approval of loan applications. There is also the case of Amazon using machine learning for employee recruiting resulting in bias against female applicants,Footnote 12 which led the company to shut down its system and collaborate with the National Science Foundation to sponsor “fairness algorithm” research.Footnote 13
In this article, we attempt to reveal that not just fairness but also trust is an important value at stake. A trust-based argument is generalizable to other contexts. To show this, we will use more generic scenarios (e.g., targeted advertising, whether commercial or political) as well as card/loan applications.
Consider another case. A father of a high school daughter complained to a manager about a letter she received from Target: “My daughter got this in her mailbox. She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?” But it turned out that the daughter was already pregnant, which Target’s AI ascertained based on the daughter’s online activities on Target’s website (and very likely on the web pages of its countless partner companies).Footnote 14
Users are watched. Targeted advertisments predict with high precision who consumers are. As a New York Times article illustrates, “this ad thinks that you’re male, actively consolidating your debt and are a high spender at luxury department stores. . . . This ad thinks you’re female, a registered Democrat and are likely to vote for the sitting president.”Footnote 15 And in most cases, companies do not offer any explanation about how they gain access to users’ profiles, from where they collect the data, and with whom they trade their data.
Since October 2019—probably because of politically inspired pressure from stakeholders—Facebook has started providing somewhat generic, but not meaningful enough, explanations to users. For instance, when users see targeted advertisments on Facebook and click “Why am I seeing this ad?” they are transported to a page explaining, for instance, that “You are on a list that Organization X uploaded on October 2nd.” This is better than nothing, but not specific enough to be meaningful. And many other companies do not even offer a generic explanation. Users do not know how their personal information is traded from one platform to another, how their identities are profiled for commercial or political advertisments (e.g., Facebook and Cambridge AnalyticaFootnote 16), or how their online profiles eventually influence how they think about themselves.Footnote 17
2. THE LEGAL DEBATE AND THE CONTOURS OF A RIGHT TO EXPLANATION
GDPR regulates the use of automated algorithmic decision systems. These are autonomous computational systems that use algorithms to make significant decisions for subjects utilizing the data they provide (e.g., service users, employees, or applicants). Several researchers construe that GDPR grants EU residents a novel kind of protection, the “right to explanation.”Footnote 18 However, there is suspicion about whether GDPR really requires companies to provide a meaningful explanation to such data subjects.Footnote 19
Wachter, Mittelstadt, and Floridi argue that this suspicion is valid,Footnote 20 while Wachter et al. offer two useful criteria for categorizing explanations: timing and content. Depending on content, two different kinds of explanation can be given as follows:
System functionality, i.e., the logic, significance, envisaged consequences, and general functionality of an automated decision-making system, e.g., the system’s requirements specifications, decision trees, pre-defined models, criteria, and classification structures; or Specific decisions, i.e., the rationale, reasons, and individual circumstances of a specific automated decision, e.g., the weighting of features, machine-defined case-specific decision rules, information about references or profile groups.Footnote 21
Also, in terms of timing, there can be two different kinds of explanations, as follows:
An ex ante explanation occurs prior to an automated decision-making taking place. Note that an ex ante explanation can logically address only system functionality, as the rationale of a specific decision cannot be known before the decision is made; An ex post explanation occurs after an automated decision has taken place. Note that an ex post explanation can address both system functionality and the rationale of a specific decision. Footnote 22
Hence there can be three different kinds of possible explanations with respect to algorithmic decisions, as follows: 1) an ex ante explanation about system functionality (or an ex ante generic explanation), 2) an ex post explanation about system functionality (or an ex post generic explanation), or 3) an ex post explanation about a specific decision (or an ex post specific explanation).Footnote 23 Then, Wachter et al. ask whether GDPR offers any of these three rights. They maintain that the legal expressions in GDPR aim primarily to regulate businesses to act in certain ways before collecting, controlling, or processing personal data.Footnote 24 Hence it can be said that, initially, GDPR grants only a right to an ex ante explanation about system functionality (or an ex ante right to generic explanation). However, as Wachter et al. point out, a right to an ex ante generic explanation is almost equivalent to a traditionally well-accepted right, namely, a right to informed consent.Footnote 25 If a right to explanation is simply another name for the traditional notion of informed consent, there is nothing normatively new. If GDPR contains a philsophically meaningful addition under the new name, it should additionally involve ex post explanations.Footnote 26
Andrew D. Selbst and Julia Powles have attempted to explain why Watcher et al.’s interpretation is too rigid and how GDPR, if flexibly interpreted with the help of human rights law and other aspects of the GDPR itself, does grant a right to ex post explanation.Footnote 27 Which interpretation makes more sense is an important question, though the purpose of this article is not to adjudicate this dispute. The legal debate asks whether there are positive resources in GDPR that support a right to explanation; we ask, instead, whether there is a fundamental, moral right to explanation that can be recognized by positive laws.Footnote 28 Note that not just those who construe that a right to explanation already exists in GDPR but also skeptics of the current regulation criticize its lack of a clear expression of a right to explanation. In fact, the skeptics implicitly maintain that a right to an ex post explanation ought to be recognized by positive laws. This article aims to contribute to this debate by developing a moral argument for a right to explanation that can serve as a foundation for a legally recognized version of this right.
As stated, there can be three different kinds of explanation: an ex ante generic explanation, an ex post generic explanation, and an ex post specific explanation. Yet, this categorization is not itself a morally pertinent one. In this article, we reconceptualize a right to explanation (see Table 1).
Table 1: Contours of a Right to Explanation
As explained, an ex ante generic explanation is a technical name for the traditional understanding of a right to be informed. So, we focus on why an ex post explanation can be conceptually distinguished into two moral kinds.
An ex post generic explanation often differs from an ax ante generic explanation—even if both are about system functionality—because during training or processing, logic can change.Footnote 29 So, an ex post generic explanation is not always redundant. But an ex post generic explanation may often not be enough. For instance, in the Apple Card application case given earlier, the company used a black box system to decide credit limit and, in response to an applicant seemingly disfavored because of her sex, offered her for clarification a kind of very generic ex post explanation about how its decision process generally worked for all applicants (e.g., “The black box algorithm made a decision, and gender was not used as a factor”). If the applicant has a right to an ex post explanation—as we argue she should in the next sections—the company should offer her a meaningful and intelligible explanation (both generic and specific) about why and how the algorithmic system created a disparate impact upon her, including specific features used in the data processing. We defend the ethical importance of this kind of ex post explanation in the next section.
For now, it suffices to minimally conceptualize the right. We can state generally that when a company harms (or wrongs) a person by its use of an automated algorithmic system, the harmed (or wronged) party with a right to an ex post explanation (both generic and specific) is entitled to require the company to explain what happened—and why—in an intelligible manner. To be specific, those who are not harmed or wronged do not have this right. Let us call this a “right to remedial explanation.”
The second kind of a right to an ex post explanation (both generic and specific) is a right that data subjects can make legitimate claims without harm (or wrong) being done to them. Imagine that an MBA student has been looking for a new job for a year using an employment search engine that utilizes machine learning technology to provide individualized search results. But the applicant now knows that, when she searches for something on Google, the search algorithm filters results by predicting what it thinks she wants to see based on previous online activities and search results (in addition to relevance and accuracy). This so-called filter-bubble results in Google providing the applicant with different search results than it would for someone else who searches for the same term,Footnote 30 and she’s read a newspaper article explaining that algorithms can discriminate against underrepresented genders or ethnicities.Footnote 31
For these reasons, the applicant wonders whether she can still trust the job search engine after remembering that she accepted the terms of service and privacy when she first used the website. But now she has an interest in knowing how the service provider has processed her data and very possibly her activities on other websites since then—and how this has affected not just her job search results but her very behavior online. She wants an update.
Since the Cambridge Analytica case broke in 2018—which brought to light the harvesting of 87 million Facebook users’ data to create about 30 million psychographic profiles of voters—numerous newspaper articles have revealed how companies track and target consumers’ sentiments, moods, traits, and dispositions—and how these data are actually used to influence their behavior.Footnote 32 It is not just Cambridge Analytica; most advertisers do almost the same thing. Business schools even teach how to do this most effectively.
Consumers increasingly want to know why they see particular advertising, how the algorithms determine their online identities (e.g., whether they are included in the list of “nearsighted,” “balding (slowly),” “impulse buyer,” etc.),Footnote 33 and whether companies transfer their data to other entities that users do not want them to (e.g., when users verify human identity through Google’s reCAPTCHA by selecting bridges or traffic lights, they are possibly aiding companies that are developing pattern recognition systems for such uses as autonomous vehicles or military drones).Footnote 34 Consumers need to know whether they can continue trusting companies.
In the next section, we explain why a right to updated explanations should exist without suffering harms or wrongs. For now, let us call this the “right to an updating explanation.”
3. DEFENDING THE RIGHT TO EXPLANATION
It is often said that, in the digital era, informed consent is dead.Footnote 35 This negative view originates largely from the traditional understanding that informed consent is a static and complete transaction. This is insufficient in the algorithmic context. An alternative view—which allows us to understand informed consent as an assurance of trust for incomplete algorithmic processes—will show that the rationale of informed consent entails a right to two types of ex post explanation.Footnote 36
3.1 Informed Consent
When companies collect and process data subjects’ information—in particular, personally identifiable information or personal dataFootnote 37—obtaining informed consent is ethically required (unless overridden for specific, acceptable reasons). Indeed, there is overlapping consensus about the importance of informed consent in online and algorithmic contexts.Footnote 38 Service providers like Facebook attempt to obtain some kind of informed consent by disclosing their terms of privacy, service, and policy. However, simply saying “We disclosed our terms of privacy and users accepted them” does not mean that a company is justified in claiming that “Users consented to the terms.” To see what conditions must be met, we need to take a brief excursion into the traditional definition of informed consent, which is a three-part transaction as follows: “Party A consents to party B to B’s doing φ to A.” This paradigm does not explicitly express the role of an ex ante explanation, but when A consents to B’s doing φ, A generally does so with some explanation about φ, whether the explanation is explicit/informative or implicit/unhelpful.
In that sense, consent is, more specifically, a four-part transaction as follows: “Party A consents to party B to B’s doing φ to A under Explanation ψ.” Let us apply the account to our algorithmic contexts. There is a variety of A–B–φ–ψ relationships here. In the context of several kinds of common online transactions (credit card, loan, and admission applications; employment and promotion decisions; and targeted advertising), a company that uses machine learning technology is B, human applicants/users are As, φ is the company’s act of controlling and processing A’s personal data, and ψ is an ex ante general explanation about what kinds of personal information (offline and online) the company will collect and how the machine (computers) will process the information to make relavent decisions. Numerous other—but relevantly similar—contexts can be analyzed through the A–B–φ–ψ relationships of consent.
Next, informed consent is a speech act that transforms the moral relations between A and B. If A acts in a way that communicatively consents to B about φ under ψ, the consent alters the moral relations between A and B in a way that permits B to do φ to A in accordance with ψ.Footnote 39 So, if A originally did not have the moral power to allow B to do φ to A, B cannot obtain consent from A. Hence, whenever informed consent is unnecessary or justifiably avoided, other things being equal, a right to explanation loses much of its normative ground. So it is wrong to say that a right to explanation can never be overridden by other stringent ethical considerations.
Finally, the moral transformations occur through a consent if and only if (or to the extent that) the consent is genuine, meaningful, and informed. According to a traditional account, B is justified in saying that “A meaningfully consented to B to do φ under ψ” when 1) A’s consent was voluntary and A was reasonably competent to make the choice and 2) A was reasonably well informed about φ under ψ.Footnote 40 So, for consent to be meaningful in algorithmic contexts, data subjects (A) must be competent (e.g., having capabilities of an ordinary adult in a normal condition) and must be reasonably well informed by an ex ante explanation (ψ) about the act (φ) of data processing that companies (B) will do so that the data subjects (A) voluntarily make a choice.Footnote 41 This analysis shows that if there is an informed consent in algorithmic contexts (and all others too), then there is an ex ante explanation ψ, which conceptually shows that the traditional idea of informed consent itself entails a right to an ex ante explanation.
But what about the two other rights to an ex post explanation? To answer this question, we need to go deeper into the moral foundations of informed consent and the incomplete nature of it.
3.2 Limitations of the Autonomy-Based Account of Informed Consent
The traditional account of informed consent defends the importance of it being based primarily on autonomy; this account construes autonomy as self-governance.Footnote 42 Accordingly, the account maintains that the ethical importance of the conditions of consent—voluntariness, competency, and an intelligible ex ante explanation—is best understood in light of the fact that the conditions are essential to protecting the consenter’s self-governance.
The autonomy-based account has been discussed critically, especially by Onora O’Neill.Footnote 43 Her work has proved useful for our algorithmic contexts to explain why a right to an ex ante explanation must be supplemented by two other such rights. The criticisms center on a consenter’s realistic capacity to be fully self-governing. In medical and clinical research contexts, any explanation given to patients about risks cannot even be described sufficiently in an ax ante manner. About those limitations, Onora O’Neill writes, “The quest for perfect specificity [in an ex ante manner] is doomed to fail.”Footnote 44 This nature of an ex ante explanation poses a serious problem for the autonomy-based model. If patients cannot be reasonably—or at least moderately—informed, then the quality of their consent and self-governance is accordingly tainted.
One might wonder why it cannot simply be said that “I consent to X and any risks that can be potentially involved, although I am fully aware that I have no idea what the risks might be.” An individual can perhaps consent without being informed. But not all consent is ethically good enough. The quality of consent matters, and the standard view holds that satisfying the three earlier discussed conditions is essential.Footnote 45 In fact, the duty to obtain the quality of a consent has been considered pivotal in clinical research since the Nuremberg Code of 1947, which states, “The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.”
The quality of consent matters in algorithmic contexts as well. But the condition that the consenter must be reasonably well informed in an ex ante manner could be a tricky condition to meet in many of the possible algorithmic contexts because of the inherently incomplete nature of ex ante explanations about automated algorithmic decisions and their involved risks and uncertainties. The whole point of using an automated algorithmic decision system is to minimize humans’ predetermined or biased decision criteria and, instead, let the machine—with its unprecedented computational capacity for big data—find insights and make decisions for humans. Thus, in varied commercial contexts—especially those in which highly advanced machine learning technologies are used—an ax ante explanation can often hardly be specific or complete about which personal data the machine will ultimately use, the ways they will be used, or what kinds of inferences or insights will ultimately be gleaned from computational processes. Of course, an ex ante generic explanation about system functionality can be given to data subjects as part of a traditionally understood informed consent process. But with such a generic explanation, companies are hardly justified in saying that data subjects consent to a continuing and almost never-ending process.
Furthermore, in algorithmic contexts, morally objectionable errors can occur nonnegligently in an unpredictable manner. For instance, “algorithms could exhibit [discriminatory] tendencies even if they have not been manually programmed to do so, whether on purpose or by accident.”Footnote 46 This possibility makes it even more difficult to secure a high quality of consent in algorithmic contexts. If we rely on only the autonomy-based static model, the quality of the consent is determined—other things being equal—to the extent that the data subjects are capable of informed self-governance about the algorithmic processing and its involved risks or uncertainties in an ex ante manner. For generic functionality, the consenter’s quality of autonomy may be reasonably well reflected by his or her choice; however, for algorithmic adaptability and ensuing uncertainties, the quality of the consenter’s self-governance cannot be well reflected by his or her choice. We need an alternative approach.
3.3 An Alternative: A Trust-Based Account of Informed Consent
The value of informed consent, alternatively, can be understood not just as lying its protective role for individual autonomy but also in its assurance by which the consentee expresses his or her committement and thereby invites the consenter to trust the consentee for unpredictable matters.Footnote 47 The question is how informed consent transactions in algorithmic contexts work as assurances and generate normative expectations that result in companies acting in an accountable manner for unpredictable problems. Answering this question will also clarify what role the two rights to ex post explanations play in the dynamic and ongoing informed consent process that algorithmic contexts produce.
We begin by briefly offering background about trust. It is commonly accepted that trust is, first of all, a three-part relationship: “A trusts B to do φ.” For instance, a patient trusts a doctor to access and use his or her personal data (e.g., genetic information). Second, the three-part relationship requires at least three fundamental conditions: 1) trustor A accepts risks by relying on some discretionary power of trustee B over the domain that involves φ, which makes A vulnerable to B’s betrayal; 2) A is optimistic that B is competent in the relevant domain; and 3) A is optimistic that B has positive commitment (goodwill/caring, social norms, etc.) toward A with respect to φ. Competing accounts—the goodwill accountFootnote 48 and the participant stance accountFootnote 49—commonly accept conditions 1 and 2 but diverge on how to interpret the content of positive commitment.Footnote 50
Although the goodwill-based view is the most dominant account of trust in paradigmatic personal/intimate relationships, the account may not be apt for commercial contexts, where it is often not reasonable to expect “caring” from other parties. Realistically, in non-personal/intimate relationships (e.g., modern patient–doctor relationships), we need a broader account of trust that does not necessarily require the trustee’s caring/goodwill toward the trustor.Footnote 51 We believe for our purposes that endorsing the participant stance account of trust will be most productive, for reasons we discuss now.
The participant stance account uses what moral philosophers call “participant/reactive attitudes,” in which party A is justified in taking actions toward party B when the relationship involves B’s commitment to be accountable for normative expectations generated by the relationship.Footnote 52 An example of a reactive attitude is blame.Footnote 53 The participant stance account maintains that trust is another example. Accordingly, the account shows that A is justified in placing trust in B when the relationship is predicated upon B’s readiness to be accountable as an evidentiary sign when B does not act consistently with normative expectations generated by the relationship. Thus, for our contexts, it follows that data subjects can reasonably place trust in data processing companies only when the relationship is predicated on the companies’ readiness/commitment to be accountable for the normative expectations generated by the relationship. Such a relationship, O’Neill argues, can be created by the transaction of informed consent in medical and clinical research contexts.Footnote 54 The same moral mechanism can be created by consent transactions in algorithmic contexts—once we understand informed consent not as a static but as a complete transaction.
Here is how it would work. Imagine that a data processing company attempts to obtain informed consent from data subjects (users, employees, or applicants through a “terms of service and privacy policy”). As discussed earlier, automated algorithmic decision-making systems (especially neural network–based systems, e.g., deep learning) are by their nature adaptable to new data in unpredictable ways, so processing personal data using such systems cannot be reasonably well explained in an ex ante manner (especially for secondary and noncontextual uses). Thus, at the time of consent, data subjects need assurance to secure the quality of the consent. The data processing company’s attempt to obtain consent can be understood as an attempt to assure data subjects via an invitation to trust the company’s commitment to play by the rules. This invitation, thereby, holds the company accountable for the data subjects’ trust. This is similar to promise making: a promise/contract must be kept because it is wrong to breach the trust that the promisor has invited from the promisee by performing the speech act “I promise you.”Footnote 55 Likewise, companies in algorithmic contexts—by attempting to obtain consent from data subjects—communicatively invite them to trust by committing not to breach that trust. So, data subjects have reason to take the company’s act of obtaining consent as an assurance that the company will play by expected rules. Therefore, in our view, it makes sense for Mark Zuckerberg to admit that Facebook’s data crisis is a “breach of trust between Facebook and the people who share their data with us and expect us to protect it.”Footnote 56 Here we do not make an empirical claim; we make a logical and conceptual one that, in algorithmic contexts, informed consent presupposes an assurance of trust and, unless companies invite data subjects to place trust in them, data subjects cannot commit themselves to transactions of consent in the first place.
As the participant stance account insightfully shows, party A is justified in taking a reactive attitude (e.g., trust) toward party B when there is evidentary sign of B’s commitment to be accountable for normative expectations. Trust and evidence should not contradict each other, especially in the algorithmic context.Footnote 57 By what evidence or “justifiers” (i.e., “facts or states of affairs that determine the justification status of [trust]”Footnote 58) can companies fulfill their duty to offer assurance so that data subjects can reasonably trust or distrust? We argue that data processing companies’ readiness to respect data subjects’ right to ex post explanations is a fitting—although perhaps not exhaustive—evidentiary sign for algorithmic contexts.
3.4 Trust and a Right to a Remedial Explanation
Imagine that data subject S wants to decide whether to consent to the terms of service and privacy offered by a company that uses machine learning algorithms, say, Facebook. In this case, the terms serve as an ex ante explanation, providing S with an ex ante general explanation about the system functionality of the algorithms and some generic explanation about possible risks or uncertanties. S asks what further conditions must be met, or what must be assured and guaranteed up front, for her to, not blindly, but rather reasonably place trust in the company’s commitment to play by the rules. By what rules should the company play? What can the company offer as an evidentiary display of its commitment?
First of all, companies cannot assure that there will be no risks or uncertainties.Footnote 59 But it is reasonable for data subjects to expect companies to assure them up front that, once harms or wrongs occur, the company will respond in a fair and responsible manner.Footnote 60 It can be argued that if the right is to remediation, then there need not be an explanation.
But there are at least two reasons why such remedial explanation is needed. Recall the scenario in which Apple Card uses an algorithmic decision-making system to sort applicants and determine credit limits that resulted in its black box system disfavoring a female applicant. The applicant who has been discriminated against wants the company to provide her with an explanation of what really happened—and why. In particular, some kind of specific account is required to identify who is responsible for correcting harms and righting wrongs. Without such specifics, it is difficult for data subjects to identify what must be remedied—and how. Second, in a moral system, apology or regret—in addition to pecuniary compensation—is essential to remedy harms or wrongs. A genuine apology includes an explanationFootnote 61—and not an arbitrary one gratuitously provided to sidestep responsibility by making algorithms the scapegoat. A fitting explanation is not necessarily a scientific one in which a computer scientist would be interested but rather the kind that a wrongdoer is supposed to offer to a victim.
3.5 Trust and a Right to an Updating Explanation
What about the right to an updated explanation that companies are required to offer upon request that do not cause harms or wrongs? Is it unreasonable for data subjects to trust when not assured of this right? We can learn from the medical sector, where informed consent is understood as a process rather than as a complete transaction, for example, deciding whether a patient’s consent that allows surgical removal of certain tissue also incorporates later use of this tissue for research purposes. Because it is often not forseeable whether removed tissue at t 1 will be useful for some research purpose at t 2, it is not feasible for patients to be informed about it in an ex ante manner. Even if removal of tissue generically implies research uses of the tissue in medical contexts, patients should be granted a veto on further uses of the tissue at t 2 so that patients have the option to meaningfully exit previous consent made at t 1. This scenario is parallel to algorithmic contexts that involve secondary and unpredictable uses of data that either subjects or processors cannot reasonably foresee at the time of consent.
It is unreasonable to take the attitude, “OK, the company assures me of fair redress, so I will now permanently trust the company. I will be compensated anyway, if something happens.” Such an attitude is naive. A right to a remedial explanation without a right to an updating explanation is nominal. By exercising this right, data subjects who have reasonable suspicion may have an opportunity to inspect whether there were wrongs or harms. The right to an updating explanation should exist to support those harmed by companies or who have reasonable suspicion of having been harmed.
But why should those who are not harmed in the algorithmic context—or who do not have any suspicion—be entitled to the right to an updating explanation too? Because algorithms used by big data companies directly and continuously affect those not directly harmed. Facebook offers an ex ante explanation to data subjects about how the company is going to use their information. By consenting to it, data subjects allow (at the decision point) the use of their information for countless purposes. Before the decision point, a company cannot fully predict how the algorithm will work with the newly incoming data—largely because complicated algorithms are adaptable. The company uses data subjects’ information for newsfeeds, for instance, and for targeted advertising. At this point, data subjects are not harmed, but the algorithm directly affects and influences the subjects’ behavior. So, we claim that data subjects are entitled to an update about how the company has used their information.
More fundamentally, trust is a Bayesian attitude in the sense that it should change depending on prior events.Footnote 62 The fact that users can be justified in placing trust in a company at t 1 does not mean that they will be justified in doing so forever. If a user finds evidence that changes the degree of his or her trust in the company, the user must be able to adjust the degree of trust to which he or she agrees. To update users’ trust—that is, to meaningfully decide whether to keep placing trust in the company (or not) so as to keep allowing it to process users’ data (or not)—users need updating evidence. Thus they need an updating explanation about how the company has collected and processed users’ personal data. This is a trust-based reason for companies assuring data subjects that they will be given some updating explanation upon request.
At this point, critics might wonder why we don’t take a simpler route to defend the two rights to an ex post explanation, such as 1) a right to rescind or exit must be guaranteed, and such a right necessarily entails a right to an updating explanation, and 2) a right to fair trial, grievance, or fair compensation must be guaranteed, inclusive of a right to remedial explanation. Making such an assertion is consistent with our account but does not show why we need such rights in the first place. Our account offers a deeper understanding of why such rights must be assured, especially with respect to algorithmic uncertainties, and why trust—as well as personal autonomy—is crucial to understanding the dynamic, incomplete, and continuing nature of informed consent in algorithmic contexts. Ex post explanations are typically essential for ensuring that data subjects can intelligibly judge whether to place trust in companies and how informed consent, as an assurance of trust, can normatively hold companies to act accountably by being “compelled by the force of norms”Footnote 63 in the trusting relationship.
In addition, our account is practically more advantageous than simply saying that various existing rights entail derivative rights to explanations. Using the existing “rights-talk” perspective takes a self-governance/disclosure model in practice. But as explained, such a perspective has limitations. Disclosing broad scientific knowledge would not be helpful for data subjects to update their trust, just as disclosing every medical fact would not help patients meaningfully judge how trustworthy their doctors are. The practical point that our account implies is that a good explanation in algorithmic contexts is one that has the resources necessary so that data subjects can reasonably place trust and find assurerance. At this point, readers may wonder what an ex post explanation would be. We believe, in principle, that there should not be any one-size-fits-all standard for ex post explanations—except for intelligibility and relevance—but we offer a possible model in the next section (which we hope adds some concreteness to our philosophical discussion).
4. WHAT CAN BE EXPLAINED
4.1 Ex Ante Explanation
In our Figure 1 example, person i is the direct object of the algorithm’s decision, so person i has a right to an explanation. How might such a right work? Let us first consider the ex ante explanation.
An applicant for Apple Card, for example, understands that the company will assess creditworthiness. However, in other cases, the use of an algorithm may not be expected. That Facebook or Google present posts and news articles tailored to users by an algorithm might be informative, even causing users to seek out other news sources in response. Hence the ex ante explanation might include the existence and use of an algorithm even without specific details. One challenge here is determining when an explanation of an algorithm is meaningful—in the sense that it helps users reasonably place or withdraw trust.Footnote 64
An algorithm that determines what news articles or advertising users see, or what credit limit applicants receive, seems meaningful. Other algorithms, though important, are less meaningful. For example, how information is bundled for delivery across a wireless network seems less relevant for explanation. In the analogy of informed consent in medical contexts, explaining the crux of the matter (the focus of the operation) to the patient is important, rather than explaining all the ancillary procedures that are also important but less meaningful to the consent (hospital cleaning and trash collection, for example). Finally, an interesting test for a right to an ex ante explanation occurs when the input from person i is not intentional—for example, i being chosen for extra screening at a security checkpoint or targeted for specific advertising. In such cases, the input (xi) was “submitted” indirectly. Here the disclosure of an algorithm would stretch beyond what might be found in usual terms of service.
The explanation that an algorithmic decision rule is being used is a minimal explanation. An ex ante one could include details on the code and data that define the algorithm. Here we run into the obvious difficulty that the code is sophisticated and complex (and usually proprietary). For example, Google’s PageRank was described as using the network structure of web page links to rank pages by importance to facilitate searches. That description is informative (with some background in the mathematics of networks and linear algebra). However, describing Google’s language transition model is perhaps harder (or might just be “newer”). The model is described as a statistical machine translation using “deep learning” to embed language in a lower-dimensional vector space. Here the parallel with informed consent is helpful. Medical professionals, with experience and training, can describe the alternatives at an appropriate level of abstraction. For example, an explanation of the differences between surgery and radiation treatment, abstracted from the many technical details of each, can educate patients and empower them to make informed decisions.
4.2 Ex Post Explanations
To appreciate how an ex post explanation might work, consider the example of an AI algorithm a credit card provider might use. We can represent this arrangement with the function yi = f(β, xi). The decision function f combines the vector β of data-trained parameters with the vector xi of the characteristics of person i. The decision for person i, yi could be discrete, as in approved or not approved, or continuous, as in a credit limit. The function f can be quite complex. One class of decision rules is linear and can be written as follows:
$$ {y}_i={\unicode{x03B2}}_0\ {x}_{i,0}+\dots +{\unicode{x03B2}}_k\ {x}_{i,k}+\dots +{\unicode{x03B2}}_K\ {x}_{i,K}. $$
Here the decision rule sums over each characteristic k for individual i, x i,k , weighted by the parameter β k. Typically, the number of parameters K is large and the model parameters β k have been estimated on a large quantity of data.Footnote 65 The simple weighted sum in equation (1) allows for a clear description of the ex post right to explanation.
An ex post generic explanation is a description, in general, of the factors the algorithm uses to make a recommendation. In this setting, this corresponds to the vector of the model parameters, β. An exhaustive listing of the parameters is not informative, particularly when the number of parameters K is large (i.e., thousands of coefficients is not unusual). In addition, this is not practical, as it conflicts with the algorithm creator’s ability to keep the model proprietary. Identifying the most important characteristics used to make the recommendation could meaningfully satisfy the right to an ex post generic explanation. In the context of equation (1), suppose we describe the characteristics associated with the five or ten largest parameters (for βk > 0) and smallest parameters (for βk < 0). This could correspond with clarifying to a potential borrower that current income and past delinquencies are key model inputs.Footnote 66 In some settings, it might be more informative to group or cluster coefficients to determine which characteristics are important. For example, many characteristics may collectively reflect “income” (e.g., salary, hourly wages, and bonus pay). Finally, an ex post generic explanation would be inadequate if a literal reporting of a few parameters masks a deeper explanation. This could be the case if the model exploits some correlation in the data to, for instance, effectively discriminate against women.
Notice that the ex post generic explanation focuses only on the model parameters β k. Even if this explanation meaningfully communicates the key factors in the decision process, it does not directly explain any one particular decision. An ex post specific explanation must explain how the characteristics of person i in the vector xi lead to a particular decision. In the context of the model in equation (1), the ex post specific explanation corresponds to the characteristics with high “impact.” Impact is the product of the coefficient and the characteristic: the combined β k xi,k in equation (1). This ex post specific explanation based on impact could explain that the coefficient on credit age (i.e., how long one has had a credit card) is moderate. However, person i’s credit age is particularly low. Together, the moderate coefficient and the particularly low value of this characteristic for person i is an important component of the decision. Analogous to the ex post generic explanation, focusing on the five or ten largest factors as scored by their impact, β k xi,k, could provide a meaningful ex post specific explanation.
4.3 Who Can Be a Right-Holder?
The schematic in Figure 1 focuses on person i, who submits input xi and receives outcome decision yi. Of course, large-scale decision algorithms receive input from many sources—individuals and corporations—and have implications beyond just person i. Figure 2 adds some of these to our schematic of an algorithm. In particular, we highlight an individual j who contributed to the data used to train the algorithm and company a that might provide input (or a direct payment) into the run that generates output for person i. Last, we have included “all (relevant stakeholders)” to explore how a right to explanation interacts with public policy.
Figure 2: Schematic of a Decision Algorithm Including Individuals i, j, and all
Note. Also included is company a. Inputs are denoted x (characteristics, payments, etc.), and outputs (decisions) are denoted y.
In Figure 2, person j is providing data that are used to create (modify, improve) the algorithm. In this particular schematic, person j never directly uses the algorithm (in that there is no direct outcome specific to j). In the modern digital world, person j’s phone, tablet, web browser, TV, and so on are providing a wide variety of data that get used in a large and varied number of ways. Even if j does not use one of these algorithms, the same elements of a right to explanation we discussed earlier may apply (depending on context).
In our framework, there can be three different kinds of data subjects (see Table 2)—although the distinction is not as clear in reality. Type 1 is someone who has been harmed by data processing companies and deserves both remedial and updating explanations. Type 2 is not clearly harmed, but processing companies have directly influenced his or her behavior with, for example, targeted advertising (whether political or commercial), and therefore he or she has only a right to updating explanation. Type 3’s personal data have been used to benefit others through processing companies with no direct influence on him or her.
Table 2: Three Different Types of Data Subjects and Their Rights
In our view, type 3 also has a right to updating explanation. For instance, when users interact with reCAPTCHA to verify their human identity by selecting bridges, traffic lights, animals, or humans, they generate data that can be potentially used for pattern recognition systems, including facial recognition. Autonomous vehicle companies, drone companies, and the US Department of Defense are all interested in such data and systems.Footnote 67 If a user does not want his or her data ultimately to be used by the Department of Defense, the user needs to be updated on whether reCAPTCHA has provided his or her data for such use. Furthermore, it is technically possible that Google can collect personal data and use it for targeted advertising.Footnote 68 Users need updates.
Here the challenge of a right to explanation is exacerbated by the prevalence of data use. Twitter, as an example, has provided data for a vast number of studies and decision algorithms (see, e.g., consumer confidence,Footnote 69 stock market,Footnote 70 political polls,Footnote 71 earthquake detection,Footnote 72 heart diseaseFootnote 73). These future data uses are hard to predict, so a right to an ex ante explanation about how data might be used in the future may be infeasible. So, what we have conceptualized previously as a right to an updating explanation in section 3 is required. Challenges are similar (perhaps identical) for the ex ante explanation of an algorithm to user i so as to describe the data inputs and code at a level of aggregation that is understandable and meaningful. Finally, the advent of “big data” implies that each individual’s data item is “tiny.” In a data set of one billion, a single observation has a negligible impact on the resulting model, seemingly making an ex post specific explanation of person j’s data moot.
Next, in Figure 2, it is interesting to consider the role of company a. It might provide input data (xa) about the products or services it provides and alter the decision result yi for person i. For example, if a person searches Amazon for a red shirt, the information provided by companies about shirt color is relevant. The reason we highlight this as an item separate from data is that this direct manipulation is often an important component of the business strategy underpinning the algorithm. In particular, an important category of input of company a is a direct payment (e.g., a sponsored link). Does the existence of these commercial inputs into the algorithm alter the explanations to the user (person i) or the person contributing data (j)? Certainly, in many contexts involving medicine or fiduciary advising, the disclosure of potentially incentive-altering payments is a requirement. Clearly company a is owed an explanation of how the algorithm is influenced by the input xa. However, this is most likely part of the commercial relationship between the company and the algorithm’s owner. Convincing a to make a payment requires an explanation.
Finally, as we noted in the introduction, algorithms that make and support decisions are a prevalent and growing component of economic life. What right does the public at large, denoted by “all” in Figure 2, have to an explanation? Existing legal and regulatory mechanisms already have jurisdiction over some aspects of this developing reality. Algorithms that make loan decisions cannot violate fair lending regulations about nondiscrimination, for example. Self-driving cars must obey speed limits and stop signs. An interesting question, more generally, is, What right does the public have to require an explanation of how the commercial algorithm or the self-driving car is making decisions? Although this might stretch the analogy with informed consent, the ability to make informed public policy decisions requires an explanation of how algorithms are working. We do not deny that informed consent can sufficiently justify the public’s right to explanation. But granting a right to explanation to an entrusted third party—for example, the government—can be an effective instrument to futher assure users that they can trust data companies, thereby further strengthening the quality of their informed consent, just as the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval processes function as an assurance of trust that verifies the quality of informed consent in the medical context. At a practical level, a meaningful explanation of how an algorithm is working can facilitate its usefulness (e.g., government-provided data about the economy or maintaining legible stop signs). More important, algorithms are at the forefront of much important public policy, from health care to transportation, labor market structure, financial intermediation, and so on. Informed public policy debate and decision-making necessitate an explanation of the underlying algorithms.
5. ADDRESSING OBJECTIONS
5.1 Ignorant Dependency
Our example in section 3.2 used a linear model (equation [1]) as a way of clarifying ex ante and ex post explanations. However, many machine learning algorithms are not linear. In neural network end-to-end models (e.g., deep learning), connections between a specific input and specific decision depend, in a complicated way, on all the inputs. Is it technically possible for companies to provide an intelligible explanation to data subjects concerning the inputs that led to any specific decision beyond a relatively superficial statement of how the algorithm works?Footnote 74
A growing number of researchers are attempting to develop explainable or interpretable AI (or XAI) systems.Footnote 75 But there are problems to overcome.Footnote 76 Different researchers have different ideas about the term explanation, so it is not yet clear how to objectively know which form of XAI is good or better/worse than others for a specific domain. To answer this, “goodness” criteria are needed. But there is a lack of literature about which form of explanation (e.g., global, local, counterfactual) is best and how much information is suitable for human data subjects. Thus researchers should attempt to theoretically and empirically develop goodness criteria for the practical use of AI. A core research problem is to understand the features that make for a beneficial explanation of an AI system. This can refer to the output features of a machine learning algorithm, textual explanation, or a written explanation of certain algorithmic outputs. The answer should come up with a philosophical, theoretical definition and a framework of good explanations (e.g., objective understanding for physicians, perception of understanding, perception of trustworthiness, persuasiveness, perception of fairness).Footnote 77 Second, based on the results from the first phase, researchers should work to operationalize the notion of a “good explanation” in various contexts. For example, in the context of textual explanation, researchers may be given several different descriptions of a certain concept to share with data subjects.
Of course, we admit that the generic criteria we just discussed are not sufficient to address the particular difficulties associated with the complexities of explaining algorithms—which are beyond the capacity of this article. The main contribution is to show that companies should not only develop interpretable AI but also seriously study what types of explanation are really useful for users. Different stakeholders may need different types of explanation. Users may need simple or complex ones (depending on context). It is difficult to answer all these questions without further studying the criteria—theoretically and empirically.
Do companies have an incentive to develop XAI? Interestingly, the drive to interpret these models is not inconsistent with performance. Better understanding guards against overfitting and facilitates fine-tuning. It is also worth noting that advances in techniques to interpret and hence explain nonlinear models have followed their empirical success. Presumably, had the models not been useful, there would have been little effort to understand them. Choosing an algorithm that has poorer predictive performance—but is more easily explained—can be a rational choice.Footnote 78 In fact, according to an IBM study, about 60 percent of five thousand executives surveyed were concerned about the explainability of AI decisions.Footnote 79 Another study of three thousand executives showed “developing intuitive understanding of AI” to be the most important challenge in the industry.Footnote 80
5.2 Is the Use of Algorithms Unique?
What is distinctive about the right to an ex post explanation in the case of an algorithm? Why not a general right to an ex post explanation?
The use of algorithms is simultaneously unique and not unique. First, our analogical claim is that the use of algorithms is not unique, so we as a society should not use double standards with respect to their regulation. But if so, why is there a need to develop an argument for such a claim in the algorithmic context? Our article’s contribution is to clarify the parallel. Without debunking the parallel, it would have been difficult to understand why we should have algorithmic companies held as strictly accountable as they are in other regulatory scenarios.
However, the use of algorithms is unique in the sense that informed consent on algorithmic contexts is incomplete. In a typical medical context, a doctor can offer a reasonably complete explanation to a patient in an ex ante manner (e.g., “I am going to do surgery X. It is a simple, short, and safe surgery. Here’s the description of the entire process. Not much is unpredictable”). The patient can accordingly make an informed choice, and the informed consent transaction is complete. But the nature of algorithmic context is its unpredictability. Processing companies cannot offer a reasonably complete explanation in an ex ante manner. So, the traditional view of informed consent based on autonomy is not workable. We have offered an alterative view that allows us to see informed consent as an incomplete, ongoing process. In sum, the unique situation made by algorithms needs a new perspective about what informed consent is.
5.3 Analogy or Dis-analogy?
In addition, one might say that the analogy between the medical and algorithmic contexts might not be an apt lens through which to view the situation. For instance, the physician has some obligation—by virtue of his or her professional role or relationship with the patient—that is absent in the algorithmic context. In the case of businesses, there is debate about just what is owed to customers. In our view, however, a major driver for the physician having a special duty to the patient applies to the business context as well. From a moral perspective, the physician and the patient have a trust relationship in which the physician is the trustee and the patient is the trustor. When data subjects entrust data processing firms with the management of their personal information, firms likewise become trustees.
The medical context is, of course, an analogy; it is not the same as the algorithmic context. For instance, the public service ethos that is pervasive in the medical field is absent in the sectors of the economy in which most data-capturing companies operate. Yet, a growing number of such companies—and other relevant industry stakeholders—are actively deliberating the creation of algorithmic codes of ethics.Footnote 81 Historically, the modern medical field did not have such a public ethics infrastructure at its onset—but one was developed as the field grew and matured over many decades.
Another potentially helpful analogy is that, as boards of directors are obliged to act in fidelity to the interests of shareholders, boards could also be obliged to act in fidelity to the interests of data subjects. Shareholders do not directly control a firm’s assets; they rely on management’s veracity. This creates a governance issue of how to protect this trust relationship.Footnote 82 Shareholders’ trust in management should not be blind; it must be reasonable. For that reason, various rights have been granted to shareholders, one of which is a right to information updates.Footnote 83 A concrete realization of this is the stockholders’ meeting, when stockholders are updated about how management has handled their assets. Similarly, as data subjects do not directly manage their data, there is a problem of accountability and determining how to ensure that management uses such data in the interests of these data subjects. As societies have addressed the agency problem for shareholders—by granting them a set of rights—it is time to consider granting similar rights to data subjects.Footnote 84
Perhaps the transition is not considering data subjects as merely customers. A preconception is that they sell their personal data to processing firms that, in turn, offer services to them. But there is no solid evidence that firms purchase personal information from data subjects. If firms purchased information, there would be a transfer of property rights. As an empirical matter, we do not see anything like that in online consent forms or terms of privacy policies. Consistently, when users create a Facebook account, the reality of the transaction is to allow firms to access and use their personal data in a way similar to a patient allowing a surgeon to touch his or her body during a surgery or use removed tissue for research.Footnote 85 We need much more support and discussion to develop this argument, but it is not a far-fetched idea that, just as shareholders have trust relationships with management, data subjects can have trust relationships with data processing firms. Like shareholders granted protections of their financial interests, data subjects may be granted similar information rights.
5.4 The Reality Check
The reality before us is not ideal. Selling personal information to third parties without transparency, use of data for targeted advertising (often to hawk unnecessary products to consumers), and emotional and implicit manipulation are not incidental breaches of trust. These techniques are central to the business models of algorithmic companies.Footnote 86 Granted, there is a question if it is at all possible for consumers to reasonably trust data processing companies—even with a right to explanation. What does it mean to place trust in companies that not only subject us to continuous online surveillance but also manipulate our emotions, sell our data to third parties (with or without our consent), and pass it on to government agencies without our consent—all as a core aspect of their business model? Can a right to explanation really solve this problem?
We do not believe that a right to ex post explanation can fundamentally solve such problems. But for customers to understand reality, a right to ex post explanation is a useful starting point. Once a user is in a better position to know that companies have carelessly or intentionally breached his or her data, the user is then better positioned to alter the level of trust on which their relationship is premised.
6. CONCLUSION
We explained that the necessity of an ex post explanation builds on the importance of ex post explanations to complete informed consent in algorithmic contexts. The ethical requirement for a right to explanation and what is meaningful in a practical sense have implications for code design and perhaps performance. If our argument is correct, it is a moral case for developing algorithms that are interpretable and explainable.
Explanations are an important part of the business strategies of companies running an algorithm- or AI-based business. How to describe services in a way that attracts clients while maintaining trade secrets is a core decision for many modern start-ups. How much code should be “open source”? How extensive and exposed should the application program interface (API) be? Explaining complicated algorithms in a way that is understandable, useful, and meaningful is not easy or obvious. Even if the goal is complete transparency, simply “disclosing everything” is not practical and unlikely to be helpful. There is much work to be done to understand what explanations individuals find useful, meaningful, and trustworthy. But note that companies, driven by funding needs, regulators, and marketing, are already tackling many of these challenges. Will there be a new career of “data interpreter”—someone who bridges data scientists and ordinary people? Probably so.
Perhaps one model would parallel the steps an algorithm designer might use to validate results when building trust in the model. Do the coefficients “make sense”? Do they align with theory or offer insight?Footnote 87 Inspecting and interpreting a model is not straightforward—by design, data sets are large, the number of parameters is expansive, and the algorithm is developed because simple or obvious rules are inadequate. Furthermore, a key challenge for modern AI algorithms, particularly those based on “deep learning,” is that—unlike equation (1)—they are not linear. In fact, such algorithms are highly nonlinear, making it hard to interpret and understand how the inputs lead to the outputs, even for the algorithm’s designer.Footnote 88 An open question in machine learning research is whether requiring an algorithm to be “interpretable” or “explainable” is a constraint that will hinder performance or a virtue that, ultimately, leads to better results.
One might ask whether respecting a right to explanation is good for business. Ultimately, this is in part an empirical question. Evidence shows that transparency via visually revealing operating processes adds value.Footnote 89 But, we have argued that the right to explanation is a moral right—existing apart from the bottom-line impact.
Tae Wan Kim (twkim@andrew.cmu.edu, corresponding author) is an associate professor of business ethics and Xerox Junior Chair at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. He has served as a committee member of the IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems, the Halcyon Dialogue for Responsible Integrated Technology Certification, and the Program Committee of AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial intelligence, Society, and Ethics. Kim is on the editorial boards of Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, and Business and Society Review.
Bryan R. Routledge is an associate professor of finance at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University. He received his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 1996. His research includes modeling the risk premia, blockchain incentives, natural language processing, and machine learning. He is an associate editor at the Journal of Quantitative Finance and Critical Review of Finance and the secretary-treasurer of the Western Finance Association. At the Tepper School, he has taught a broad set of courses, including on venture capital, fintech, alpha, and finance core and an undergradute class on business science.
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