We should also ask a more fundamental question: whether it's ever possible to create a dispassionate algorithm capable of driving fair, high-stakes governmental decisions. Though a model will generate an ostensibly empirical, trustworthy “answer,” it will always be a mechanical product of a formula and inputs. That carries the possibility of false precision. Perhaps some important considerations couldn't be quantified and were omitted from the formula; perhaps there's major disagreement over how to weight relevant factors; perhaps the “answer” responds to a question different than the one asked by the policymaker.
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