SODAS Lecture with Hilke Schellmann

Title: How to use non-traditional and interdisciplinary methods to hold AI accountable 

Abstract: I am an investigative reporter dedicated to uncovering systemic wrongdoing and its impact on vulnerable populations. My recent work has focused on holding artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms accountable, while also telling the stories of those affected by this profound technological shift. Through exclusive testimony from whistleblowers, numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain internal company documents, interviews with over 200 stakeholders, and my own real-world testing, I have discovered that some of these algorithms, which are responsible for making high-stakes decisions, often cause more harm than good. In my academic practice, I critically examine AI to determine if systematic wrongdoing is embedded within these software tools and whether they effectively address the problems they are designed to solve. To achieve this, I have led unconventional, systematic, and comprehensive research to understand how, when, and for whom these tools function - or fail to function. My work also investigates how to make the assumptions built into these tools explicit and explores the broad societal consequences of their shortcomings. In this lecture, I aim to demonstrate how "nontraditional" and interdisciplinary methods, often rooted in my investigative journalism practice, can be employed to hold AI tools accountable.

Hilke Schellmann (she/her) is an Emmy award winning investigative reporter and assistant professor of journalism at New York University. As a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, Schellmann writes about holding artificial intelligence (AI) accountable. In her book, The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired, And Why We Need To Fight Back (Hachette), she investigates the rise of AI in the world of work. Drawing on exclusive information from whistleblowers, internal documents and real‑world tests, Schellmann discovers that many of the algorithms making high‑stakes decisions are biased, racist, and do more harm than good. The book is longlisted for the Financial Times’ Best Business Book of the year award. Her eight-part investigative podcast and print series on AI and hiring for MIT Technology Review was a finalist for a Webby Award. Her documentary Outlawed in Pakistan, which played at Sundance and aired on PBS FRONTLINE, was recognized with an Emmy, an Overseas Press Club, and a Cinema for Peace Award amongst others. In her investigation into student loans for VICE on HBO, she uncovered how a spigot of easy money from the federal government is driving up the cost of higher education in the U.S. and is even threatening the country’s international competitiveness. The documentary was named a 2017 finalist for the Peabody Awards.