Assessing Algorithmic Authority

Clay Shirky characterizes “algorithmic authority” as “the decision to regard as authoritative an unmanaged process of extracting value from diverse, untrustworthy sources, without any human standing beside the result saying ‘Trust this because you trust me.’” For Shirky, “authority is a social agreement, not a culturally independent fact.” He mentions the poor performance of certain … Continue reading Assessing Algorithmic Authority