Algorithm registries are public web portals where anyone can find out about the algorithmic systems used by public administrations. At the local level, the cities from Amsterdam and Helsinki have been pioneers in the development of these tools, and more and more municipalities are implementing this type of fundamental portals to guarantee the transparency of algorithmic systems.
Them algorithm records they are one useful tool to document, in a standardized and indexable way, the decisions and assumptions that a public administration has made about an algorithmic system throughout its life cycle: development, implementation, management and, ultimately, dismantling.
For citizens, a registry of algorithms is a means to know what algorithms the City Council uses and how they affect their lives, but also to influence and participate in decisions about the deployment of these. For local governments, it can be a tool to manage the governance of those public services where algorithms play a prominent role, especially in the development and operation process, in accordance with the principles of accountability, transparency and security of public services.
In an algorithm register you can find information about the area responsible for the system within the City Council and a contact email. In addition, it reports on the data that was used to train the algorithm, the information processing model, what discriminations, risks and mitigations were detected and how human supervision is implemented.
Thanks to the lessons learned in Amsterdam and Helsinki during the local implementation of this tool, different challenges have been identified that need to be worked on to exploit the full potential of algorithm records. One of these aspects is thestandardization of the data schema that establishes the information published in algorithm registries. Have a common and interoperable standard that any local administration can use is key to ensuring that all the information necessary to understand how the algorithms work and their associated risks is published.
Last June, the Barcelona City Council, together with the cities of Brussels, Bologna, Eindhoven, Mannheim, Rotterdam and Sofia, started a working group within the framework of the Digital Forum Laboratory of the EUROCITIES network to work on this common data schema, which will be published in the coming weeks.
Another challenge that emerges when implementing algorithm registries at the local level is the decision on which systems should be published and which should not. In recent years, public administrations have been digitized at an accelerated pace, especially with the outbreak of the pandemic caused by COVID-19. Algorithms are used in practically any administrative process, from the internal management of human resources to the provision of services as critical as those related to social services. It is true that, flying the flag of transparency, any algorithm should be in the registry. Despite this, public resources are limited and the impact on citizens of most algorithms used in public administrations is minimal. Therefore, the question “What are the algorithms that must be included in the registry?” It is relevant. Which ones should be published? Those that use Artificial Intelligence techniques in their implementation? Those considered high-risk in the European Commission’s proposed regulation on artificial intelligence? Those that interact directly with people (for example, chatbots)?
Algorithm registries are a tool with enormous potential to drive algorithmic explainability and transparency in the implementation of more efficient and proactive public services. However, there is still a long way to go to establish criteria on how and what is published, provide them with clear governance in their deployment and, ultimately, ensure that they are more than just a website that is “nice to have”.