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Séminaire

Ce que la « diversité » fait au machine learning

Bilel Benbouzid (LISIS, Univ. Gustave Eiffel)

Séminaire du département de Géosciences de l’ENS.

       

Date de début 05/06/2023 11:00
Date de fin 05/06/2023
Organisateur Département de Géosciences de l'ENS-PSL
Lieu ENS – salle Claude Froidevaux – E314 • 24, rue Lhomond 75005 PARIS

Description

Fairness in machine learning from the perspective of sociology of statistics – How machine learning is becoming scientific by turning its back on metrological realism

We argue in this article that the integration of fairness into machine learning, or FairML, is a valuable exemplar of the politics of statistics and their ongoing transformations. Classically, statisticians sought to eliminate any trace of politics from their measurement tools. But data scientists who are developing predictive machines for social applications – are inevitably confronted with the problem of fairness. They thus face two difficult and often distinct types of demands: first, for reliable computational techniques, and second, for transparency, given the constructed, politically situated nature of quantification operations. We begin by socially localizing the formation of FairML as a field of research and describing the associated epistemological framework.

We then examine how researchers simultaneously think the mathematical and social construction of approaches to machine learning, following controversies around fairness metrics and their status. Thirdly and finally, we show that FairML approaches tend towards a specific form of objectivity, « trained judgement, » which is based on a reasonably partial justification from the designer of the machine – which itself comes to be politically situated as a result.

Informations supplémentaires

Ce séminaire est proposé par le groupe Diversité, équité, inclusion du département de Géosciences de l’ENS.

ENS – salle Claude Froidevaux – E314 • 24, rue Lhomond 75005 PARIS