Technology

59607 readers

3411 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

410

AI tenant-screening tool SafeRent pays $2.28 million settlement for being massively racist (pivot-to-ai.com)

submitted 1 day ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

SafeRent is a machine learning black box for landlords. It gives landlords a numerical rating of potential tenants and a yes/no result on whether to rent to them.

In May 2022, Massachusetts housing voucher recipients and the Community Action Agency of Somerville sued the company, claiming SafeRent gave Black and Hispanic rental applicants with housing vouchers disproportionately lower scores.

The tenants had no visibility into how the algorithm scored them. Appeals were rejected on the basis that this was what the computer output said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Zak@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Here's an explanation from the Associated Press. The penalty is usually a fine, which impacts stockholders by making the stock less valuable and could lead them to remove board members or demand the termination of executives. It's rarely used, but there is a corporate death penalty.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

The penalty is usually a fine, which impacts stockholders by making the stock less valuable

Of course they can always compensate for this by firing a bunch of people.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The fact that I’ve never heard of the corporate death penalty until now, but they’re bringing back the actual death penalty says everything.

[–] mriguy@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

"I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one."