Publications
Publications
- September 17, 2021
- Harvard Business Review Digital Articles
AI Can Help Address Inequity—If Companies Earn Users' Trust
By: Shunyuan Zhang, Kannan Srinivasan, Param Singh and Nitin Mehta
Abstract
While companies may spend a lot of time testing models before launch, many spend too little time considering how they will work in the wild. In particular, they fail to fully consider how rates of adoption can warp developers’ intent. For instance, Airbnb launched a pricing algorithm to close the earnings gap between Black and white hosts. While the algorithm reduced economic disparity among adopters by 71.3%, Black hosts were 41% less likely to use it, and so in many cases it made the earnings gap wider. The company needed to better consider how the algorithm would be perceived, and address that in its rollout to encourage its target audience, Black hosts, to trust it. This presents two lessons for companies: consider how an algorithmic tool will be perceived and create a targeted plan to build trust.
Keywords
Artificial Intelligence; Algorithmic Bias; Technological Innovation; Perception; Diversity; Equality and Inequality; Trust
Citation
Zhang, Shunyuan, Kannan Srinivasan, Param Singh, and Nitin Mehta. "AI Can Help Address Inequity—If Companies Earn Users' Trust." Harvard Business Review Digital Articles (September 17, 2021).
About The Author
