Fairness

Abstract

Moral assessment of designs may proceed by analysis of risk distributions to which they give rise. A complementary approach involves an application of the concept of fairness. Here, fairness refers to moral problems involving the resolution of conflicts of interest between social groups. Such a conflict of interest occurs when a gain for one social group amounts to a loss for another one. Conflicts of this type may arise from the operation of designs, especially ones that are widely adopted. A traffic-routing app that sends drivers through residential streets may work out well for drivers but less so for residents, for example. In this chapter, the nature of such fairness problems is described using Taylor-Russell diagrams. These diagrams help analysts to think clearly about such conflicts of interest. Then, the fairness impact assessment is defined to describe how Taylor-Russell diagrams may be employed to develop fair resolutions to such problems.