The Guardian – The Government is blocking information about bias in the welfare system

Big Brother Watch Team / September 3, 2023

The Department for Work and Pension is blocking MPs from discovering if Government AI tools exclude vulnerable groups from receiving benefits.

Commenting on the department’s unjustifiable secrecy, Silkie Carlo, director for Big Brother Watch said: “It is totally unacceptable to refuse legal requests for information about the use of powerful technologies that run a high risk of causing unfair and discriminatory impacts on some of our country’s most vulnerable people.

“Algorithms in the welfare system tend to cast a wide net of digital suspicion and can be dangerously wrong, with serious harms. Government uses of AI should trigger much greater public transparency, not less. People have the right to understand how their information is being used and why decisions are made about them, rather than to be left at the mercy of opaque AI.”

The Guardian – UK warned over lack of transparency on use of AI to vet welfare claims

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