Fairer Software Made Easier (using “Keys”)

Software design means making choices. Some choices have ethical consequences. Hence, for better (more ethical) software, all we need to do is make better choices. In many software systems, the range of choices is surprisingly small due to a “keys effect”; where a few key choices control the rest. Just to say the obvious, for systems controlled by a few keys, explanation and control is just a matter of running a handful of “what-if” queries across the keys. By exploiting the keys effect, it should be possible to dramatically simplify even complex explanations, such as those required for ethical AI systems. This is a “research agenda” paper seeking feedback from the community about new ideas. Hence, while we offer some results (from prior publications), the most important part of this paper is perhaps the research questions listed at the end.