May 24, 2018 - Creating a Digital Poorhouse: Technology, Human Rights, and Economic Inequality

Today, decision-making for of social service and safety net programs - everything from Medicaid to food stamps, housing and rental assistance to child welfare - is controlled not by human beings, but by models programmed to follow a pre-determined set of criteria. What if these automated systems are actually a form of discrimination, working to perpetuate, rather than eliminate, the inequality they aim to address? Virginia Eubanks, Ph.D., explains.