I'd like to tell you a story about how people built a life-or-death algorithm in a relatively inclusive, accountable way. It shows the promise and limits of our efforts to democratize AI. It's at the heart of my new book, Voices in the Code, out Sept. 8.
amazon.com/Voices-Code-Pe… On Feb. 8 2007, at this airport hotel in Dallas, Clive Grawe — a kidney transplant patient from LA — faced down a room full of medical experts.

He was pushing back against a proposed redesign of the kidney donor algorithm, saying it wouldn’t be fair to older patients, like him.

Thread: How do algorithms change our stories about who people are? I’m starting a new free weekly newsletter — TOTALLY HUMAN — to explore this from all kinds of angles. Join here: totallyhuman.substack.com It’s natural to feel like there’s an essence inside each one of us, that’s expressed through how we act. And that might seem like a good thing for algorithms to try and measure.

Seeing this, yesterday, reminded me of the words engraved over the Southeast Portico of the Jefferson Memorial. scientificamerican.com/article/why-th… "[M]anners and opinions change … We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors." (credit: flickr.com/photos/7032376… )

I’m feeling grateful this morning (thread). Near my new place in Ithaca, there’s a charming little cafe that does amazing breakfast and coffee. (I’m glad to have them nearby.)

1/ THREAD: You can go to prison based on software: breathalyzer software that says how much you've had to drink. Risk assessment software that says how likely you are to reoffend. Statistical genotyping software that gives confident conclusions where human analysts fear to tread. 2/ Almost all of this code is secret. My colleague @jlkoepke wrote about this last year in the context specifically of DNA mixtures -- medium.com/equal-future/s…