Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Explanation and the Right to Explanation

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

"In response to widespread use of automated decision-making technology," writes Elanor Taylor, "some have considered a right to explanation." However, "the normative motivations for access to such explanations ask for something difficult, if not impossible, to extract from automated systems." Why? "To seek an explanation of a decision, especially an explanation that articulates reasons, is to treat the source of the decision as an entity like the agent seeking the explanation: as a rational being." But that's not how AIs work (that's lso not how humans work). "The standard sources of such evaluation, like sentience or rationality, are not in play... In the same way that it is wrongheaded to blame a tree for dropping a branch onto my car or to ask the cloud to explain why it rained on me." 16 page PDF.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: May 04, 2024 12:26 a.m.

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