The document discusses how data is increasingly being used to make decisions but that data-driven decisions are not always good. It notes several cognitive biases that impair human decision making and how roads help navigate to locations while data helps navigate decisions. However, data has flaws like biases, errors, and being out of date. To help ensure data-driven decisions are good, the document recommends that decision systems be open to scrutiny, allow appeals and challenges, be tailored to minimize error impacts, enable reflection and correction of biases, and introduce diversity into decision making processes. The overall message is that decisions should be informed by data, not blindly driven by data.

1. Jeni Tennison
@JeniT
theODI.org

2. Decisions, decisions…

3. How to travel around London

4. Where to send my kids to school
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wikidave/4186909251

5. How much to pay my employees
https://www.flickr.com/photos/59937401@N07/5929622407

6. https://www.flickr.com/photos/141776778@N02/27323692585
Which way to vote

7. Humans are bad
at decision making

8. Anchoring
Availability
Substitution
Optimism & loss aversion
Framing
Sunk cost

10. Data to the rescue!

11. https://www.flickr.com/photos/pkwflickr/6188760566/in/album-72157627764211574/
Roads help us navigate
to a location.
Data helps us navigate
to a decision.

12. How to travel around London

13. Where to send my kids to school

14. How much to pay my employees

15. Which way to vote

16. Data can definitely help us
make better decisions

17. So we are starting to
drive decisions with data

18. What adverts we see

19. How we are treated when we're ill

20. Where and how we drive
https://www.flickr.com/photos/44124348109@N01/4044601053

21. But data-based decisions
are not necessarily good

22. How our photos get tagged

23. How much we get fined
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/08/ministry_justice_conviction_by_computer_scheme_go_ahead/

24. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/29/
government-confident-in-centrelink-debt-compliance-system-despite-reported-errors
Whether we get issued a debt notice

25. https://www.propublica.org/article/machine-bias-risk-assessments-in-criminal-sentencing
How long we spend in prison

26. Code has bugs

27. Data has flaws

28. Biased data collection
Errors in sensor readings
People lying or lending
Out of date
Fragmentary

29. That doesn't mean
we shouldn't use data
Just not blindly

30. Decisions that affect people

31. What should we do?

32. 1. Be open to scrutiny
https://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/5535034664/

33. Proactive monitoring

34. 2. Allow appeals and challenges
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sidelong/5923745788

35. Communication about data use
https://newdigitalrights.projectsbyif.com/data-access-tracker

36. 3. Tailor algorithms to the impact of errors
https://www.flickr.com/photos/benstephenson/27298596

37. Owe money?
Getadebtnotice?
YesNo
No
Yes
type II error
false negative
type I error
false positive

38. 4. Enable reflection & correction
https://www.flickr.com/photos/phild41/6209957186

39. Automatically removing bias

40. Automatically monitoring emergent bias

41. The Jury by John Morgan
5. Introduce diversity into decision making

42. Voting?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83823904@N00/64156219/

43. Argument?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/4984060658

44. https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/1910544811
Human judgement

45. Be open to scrutiny
Allow appeals & challenges
Tailor algorithms to the impact of errors
Enable reflection & correction
Introduce diversity into decision making

46. Decisions should be
informed by data
not driven by data

47. Jeni Tennison – CEO – @JeniT – jeni@theodi.org