Incident 135: UT Austin GRADE Algorithm Allegedly Reinforced Historical Inequalities
Description: The University of Texas at Austin's Department of Computer Science's assistive algorithm to assess PhD applicants "GRADE" raised concerns among faculty about worsening historical inequalities for marginalized candidates, prompting its suspension.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: University of Texas at Austin researchers developed an AI system deployed by University of Texas at Austin's Department of Computer Science, which harmed University of Texas at Austin PhD applicants of marginalized groups.
Incident Stats
Incident ID
135
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2012-12-01
Editors
Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
theregister.com · 2020
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A university announced it had ditched its machine-learning tool, used to filter thousands of PhD applications, right as the software's creators were giving a talk about the code and drawing public criticism.
The GRADE algorithm was develope…
insidehighered.com · 2020
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U of Texas at Austin has stopped using a machine-learning system to evaluate applicants for its Ph.D. in computer science. Critics say the system exacerbates existing inequality in the field.
In 2013, the University of Texas at Austin’s com…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
