Algorithmic Bias

Two days ago the ACM published a press release on algorithmic bias. Included in there is a PDF listing 7 principles for developers and organizations to consider when developing their algorithms. Computing automates many things and discrimination is unfortunately one of them.

Facebook has had a question come up with their ethnic affinity feature for ads. NOTE: I am not saying Facebook is engaging in discrimination with their ads. I haven't done any further research into this particular story to determine how the ethnic affinity actually works. I am merely posting it as an example of a question that has come up about an algorithm that a prominent company uses. If interested, please do additional research before making any judgments.

I don't know how much impact the ACM's statement will have on the developer community. But I do salute them for at least publishing this out there for awareness.

Sorting Algorithms

I just want to call out a nice site that has a visual representation of various sorting algorithms.

http://www.sorting-algorithms.com

They have eight different sorts offered, with different data sizes, and with data in various starting configurations (random, neatly sorted, reversed, few unique). Having the different input configurations is really nice as it will visually show you the strengths and weaknesses of the various sorts. It also includes a short discussion of the algorithms and lists their properies.