It’s become a cliche in technology fields: if you have a problem, make an Algorithm for it. For some organisations with an uncountable number of individuals that need to be accommodated, an algorithm can be the only solution: government agencies like the DWP and the NHS are becoming increasingly reliant on automatic decision makers. Tech and social media companies have also taken to algorithms enthusiastically, allowing them to reduce costs and advertise to users based on their use of the site and outside browsing habits.

However, an algorithm is only as good as the programmer making it when it comes to dealing with issues that can change people’s lives. Without any human input, algorithms can do real damage to people’s lives if it’s built improperly, or worse, built with a bias towards a certain result. Algorithms can form false assumptions about certain groups of people based on biased data. A case in America has demonstrated that an algorithm can fail to tackle the issue it was built for, such as a cancer patient being denied benefits because she was unable to attend an appointment, eventually resulting in death. Something as simple as a single person seeing her case and overriding the algorithm could have saved her, but many public agencies see algorithms purely as cost-cutting measures. This is where algorithms present serious moral and ethical concerns.

However, many tech companies don’t have to worry about issues like this, with the main concern being poor service and embarrassing mistakes. If you use Amazon or Youtube a lot, you’ll see a lot of products and videos that are based on your usage of the site, but it can ignore some of the reasons why you were buying or viewing it. Youtube’s algorithm assumes that ‘you enjoyed that video, so here’s more of the same’, even if you clicked the video by accident or didn’t actually enjoy it. Amazon can recommend similar products months after you bought something you’ll only need to buy on rare occasions, like a new pair of curtains or a new toilet seat. However, without these algorithms, they’d have to work with even simpler metrics to promote products to you: mainly what’s popular.

Algorithms are also integral to search engines and any search function in general: Without them, Google wouldn’t exist and you have to trawl through product categories to find the thing you were looking for. Even though algorithms can be imprecise, with terrible results, they’re also one of the major building blocks of the Internet: without it, it would be unrecognisable. Chetaru is a web design and development agency based in Darlington that is excited about building a better future with the latest technological and IT solutions available. Chetaru has the IT know-how that your firm needs to succeed and thrive, from beautiful responsive websites to economical SEO services and useful mobile app designs.

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