Hate the Process

Love the Processor, Hate the Process: The Temptations of Clever Algorithms and When to Resist Them. Harvard Law School Chair Lecture by Jonathan Zittrain, George Bemis Professor of International Law. video

On the occasion of his appointment as the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, Jonathan Zittrain will give a lecture entitled, “Love the Processor, Hate the Process: The Temptations of Clever Algorithms and When to Resist Them.”

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We should be concerned with algorithms that can't be known to those they influence.

We should be more concerned with algorithms that can't be known to those who design them.

Zittrain is especially concerned when corporations use their own inability to know what they do as a legal defense. He suggests that accademia is better situated to address these concerns than market enterprises.

Zittrain closes with the example of Wikipedia suggesting that it should have been a creation of accademia rather than relying on the good will of one person funded by his own search engine.