Course reading list on technology governance and algorithmic accountability

Day 8: Governance The tensions between free vs. proprietary software help focus us on foundational questions of governance that are threaded through the course. To what extent should new technologies be shaped and shared by anyone without gatekeeping? 2017 may find the Internet in middle age. Do its puzzles suggest anything about whether and how to resolve governance questions for more newly mainstreamed technologies like machine learning and other Al? In addition to the challenges that the Internet has provided in regulation and governance, the inability to really understand what many “learned” algorithms do, and their ability to have properties and abilities beyond the capabilities of their initial designers, presents additional challenges when thinking about whether and how to regulate the research, as well as the deployment, of Al. Phenomena like digital currencies and distributed Al systems reprises the ideas and challenges of Barlow’s declaration of independence of cyberspace. Readings: Governance: loT Security e J.M. Porup, “Internet of Things’ security is hilariously broken and getting worse” Ars Technica (January 23, 2016) http://arstechnica.com/security/20 16/0 1/how-to-search-the-internet-of-things-for-photos-o f-sleeping-babies/ archived at httos://perma.cc/R8LZ-MULJ. e Nicole Perlroth, “Hackers Used New Weapons to Disrupt Major Websites Across U.S.” The New York Times (October 21, 2016) http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/business/internet-problems-attack.html. Governance: Algorithmic Accountability e Jonathan Zittrain, “Facebook Could Decide an Election Without Anyone Ever Finding Out,” New Republic (June 1, 2014) https://newrepublic.com/article/117878/information-fiduciary-solution-facebook-digital-ger rymandering archived at https://oerma.cc/ED8B-C7YL. e Carole Cadwalladr, “Google, democracy and the truth about internet search,” The Guardian (December 4, 2016) https://Awww.thequardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/qoogle-democracy-truth-internet-s earch-facebook archived at https://perma.cc/JC7F-XDUM. e Cathy O’Neil, Weapons Of Math Destruction : How Big Data Increases Inequality And Threatens Democracy [e-book]. New York: Crown; 2016. Available from: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), Ipswich, MA. Accessed December 10, 2016 o Read the Introduction and Chapter 1 (will print for the students) e Jack Balkin and Jonathan Zittrain, “A Grand Bargain to Make Tech Companies Trustworthy,” The Atlantic (October 3, 2016) http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/10/information-fiduciary/502346/ archived at https://perma.cc/QXX4-VASM. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024268