Towards Substantive Conceptions of Algorithmic Fairness: Normative Guidance from Equal Opportunity Doctrines

Falaah Arif Khan, Eleni Manis, Julia Stoyanovich

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    Abstract

    In this work we use Equal Opportunity (EO) doctrines from political philosophy to make explicit the normative judgements embedded in different conceptions of algorithmic fairness. We contrast formal EO approaches that narrowly focus on fair contests at discrete decision points, with substantive EO doctrines that look at people's fair life chances more holistically over the course of a lifetime. We use this taxonomy to provide a moral interpretation of the impossibility results as the incompatibility between different conceptions of a fair contest - foward-facing versus backward-facing - when people do not have fair life chances. We use this result to motivate substantive conceptions of algorithmic fairness and outline two plausible fair decision procedures based on the luck egalitarian doctrine of EO, and Rawls's principle of fair equality of opportunity.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Title of host publicationProceedings of 2022 ACM Conference on Equity andAccess in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization, EAAMO 2022
    PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
    ISBN (Electronic)9781450394772
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Oct 6 2022
    Event2022 ACM Conference on Equity andAccess in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization, EAAMO 2022 - Arlington, United States
    Duration: Oct 6 2022Oct 9 2022

    Publication series

    NameACM International Conference Proceeding Series

    Conference

    Conference2022 ACM Conference on Equity andAccess in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization, EAAMO 2022
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityArlington
    Period10/6/2210/9/22

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Software
    • Human-Computer Interaction
    • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
    • Computer Networks and Communications

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