The Justice Department has been scrutinizing a Pittsburgh-area child welfare algorithm over disability discrimination concerns, following an AP investigation. The artificial intelligence tool helps social workers decide which families to investigate.
revealed potential bias and transparency issues about the opaque algorithm that is designed to assess a family’s risk level when they are reported for child welfare concerns in Allegheny County.
All three sources spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity, saying the Justice Department asked them not to discuss the confidential conversations, and two said they also feared professional retaliation.Algorithms use pools of information to turn data points into predictions, whether that’s for online shopping, identifying crime hot spots or. Many child welfare agencies in the U.S. are considering adopting such tools as part of their work with children and families.
“I think it’s important for people to be aware of what their rights are and to the extent that we don’t have a lot of information when there seemingly are valid questions about the algorithm, it’s important to have some oversight,” Frank said. Allegheny County said its algorithm has used data points tied to disabilities in children, parents and other members of local households because they can help predict the risk that a child will be removed from their home after a maltreatment report. The county added that it has updated its algorithm several times and has sometimes removed disabilities-related data points.
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