In the debate about A Level results, I hear a lot of people blaming “the algorithms” or saying that “the computer got it wrong”. This is inaccurate. Computers and algorithms don’t “get it wrong”, they do exactly what they are told to do. (1/)

Is the algorithm massively unfair? Yes. But this is not just something that happened. It was built that way. It is the people who designed the algorithm who got it wrong. (2/)

Saying the computer got it wrong is doing two things: It makes it sound accidental, as if that was never really the plan. And it makes it sound like some weird computer uprising with no human agency or oversight involved (3/)

Both are untrue. Humans are behind this. Humans made decisions, and in this instance the decision to further disadvantage students from already disadvantaged schools. This is a scandal, and we should be angry. Just not at the computers. (the end)