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1/ For nearly 70 years, the process of interviewing, allocating, and accepting refugees has gone largely unchanged, but the world is a different place now. The rise of populism has brought with it a concomitant hostility toward immigrants in general and refugees in particular.
2/ Recently, many of the policy arguments over resettlement have shifted focus from humanitarian relief to security threats and cost. If “Annie” works, it could change that dynamic.
3/ “Annie” is not a person, but a software program at the core of an ambitious experiment, one that, were it deployed more widely, could transform how refugees are allocated and treated around the world.
4/ The program was named for Annie Moore, the Irishwoman who was the first person to pass through Ellis Island, the New York outpost that served as the gateway for millions of immigrants to America.
5/ Annie’s algorithm is based on a machine-learning model in which a computer is fed huge piles of data from past placements, so that the program can refine its future recommendations.
6/ The system examines a series of variables—physical ailments, age, levels of education and languages spoken, for example—related to each refugee case. In other words, it uses previous outcomes and current constraints to recommend where a refugee is most likely to succeed.
7/7 This is a drastic departure from how refugees are typically resettled. It could not only make processes move faster, but forever change the lives of a vast number of people around the world. Read @kcalamur for more on “Annie”: theatlantic.com/international/…
