Account for power asymmetries when designing EBA procedures

Develop methodologies for designing ethics-based auditing (EBA) procedures that explicitly account for power asymmetries between system owners, regulatory bodies, and decision-subjects in the governance of automated decision-making systems (ADMS).

Background

Power imbalances among stakeholders can undermine the effectiveness and fairness of EBA processes. The authors identify the need to address these asymmetries—such as informational or institutional advantages held by system owners—to ensure audits meaningfully protect decision-subjects and support regulatory aims.

References

To mention a few: was the right ADMS built, and was it build right? (Dobbe et al., 2019); what are the appropriate ethical assessment criteria for ADMS? (D'Agostino & Durante, 2018); what should be included when documenting the origin of a dataset or the design of an ADMS? (Raji et al., 2020); how to account for the power asymmetries between system owners, regulating bodies and decision-subjects when designing EBA procedures? (Crawford et al., 2019); and, who within STS is responsible for distributed moral action? (Floridi, 2016b). These questions are left for future research.

— Ethics-Based Auditing of Automated Decision-Making Systems: Intervention Points and Policy Implications  (2111.04380 - Mokander et al., 2021) in Section 5 (Discussion: limitations and risks associated with EBA), paragraph beginning “It should also be noted that when analysing STS...”