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I try to draw some broader lessons from the algoshambles here: https://www.ft.com/content/f32b3124-6b77-4b33-9de1-7dbc6599724b
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First, as Daniel Kahneman reminded us, we often substitute easy questions for hard ones and don't realise we've done so. The hard question here was "can we give everyone the grades they should have received?" Answer: alas, no. Impossible.
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The easy one was "can we make this year's overall statistics look like previous years', while not favouring any particular group?" They NEARLY achieved this, but even had they done so perfectly it would not have given students what they wanted or deserved.
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The painful truth was that with exams cancelled and school cancelled, there was no reasonable basis for assigning grades. Perhaps that truth should have been recognised back in March.
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But we've been here before - for example the promise that a computer will find you a romantic match (See "Messy" https://amzn.to/3l3XbMZ ), or the promise that a computer can identify people at high risk of committing crimes.
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These promises are not wholly absurd. One might reasonably try a first date on the basis of a computer's recommendation, or assign social workers to try to prevent crime...
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...but the wise would not put too much weight on an algorithm that is missing most of the information it would need. We don't marry people, sight unseen, because the computer advises it. I hope we never dare imprison people for "pre-crime", although I worry about that one.
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What has happened here is that politicians were able to pretend to themselves, and to us, that a horribly painful situation with no easy answers actually did have an easy answer. Algorithmic pain relief! No wonder we are tempted - and doomed to be disappointed.
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For those who can bear to wait a month, chapter seven of my new book asks how we can put algorithms to best use, hold them to account, and avoid shambolic injustices like those of the last few weeks.
9/ https://twitter.com/TimHarford/status/1284065196152098816
9/ https://twitter.com/TimHarford/status/1284065196152098816
