Chile's journey to algorithmic openness: Pioneering transparency standards in Latin America
Chile is set to become the first country in the region to establish a standard for algorithmic transparency in public administration, thanks to a collaborative effort between the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez (UAI) and the Council for Transparency (CPLT). This initiative, which aims to provide a deeper understanding of government innovation, was inspired by the Global Trends in Government Innovation 2023 report from the MBRCGI website.
The collaboration between UAI and CPLT began in 2021, when they conducted an investigation into how many Chilean state agencies were using algorithms in their decision-making systems. In 2022, the CPLT joined the Ethical, Responsible and Transparent Algorithms project, an initiative led by the UAI and funded by IDB Lab.
The result of this collaboration is the development of a General Instruction (GI) of Algorithmic Transparency. This regulation, scheduled for publication in 2023, will require more than a thousand public agencies to report the algorithms they use. The GI will include details about the services, programs, benefits, or State programs that use the algorithms, including their names, descriptions, associated automated systems, units, query channels, and regulations.
The General Instruction will also provide information on the name, internal identifier, ownership, provider, version, and date of algorithmic systems. Furthermore, it will require the disclosure of the operating logic, personal data usage, profiling or categorization, complaint channels, and more aspects of algorithm operation.
The development process of the General Instruction is participatory, involving public institutions and civil society actors in working groups and a pilot to test the applicability of the future regulation. Key actors in the development and implementation of Chile's General Instruction on Algorithm Transparency include educational institutions, teachers, students, and parents, who must be fully informed and involved. Independent ethics commissions that oversee the development and ensure compliance with ethical standards, and regulatory bodies that enforce data privacy and fairness in AI systems, emphasizing transparent policies, training, and ethical oversight, also play crucial roles.
The investigation generated a first registry that includes various examples of algorithms used in Chilean public agencies. Examples include neural networks for detecting fraud in medical licenses, scheduling meetings at the immigration office, assigning subsidies, and the School Admission System. The review revealed an intensive use of personal data in the State and great asymmetries in the levels of transparency offered to citizens regarding the use of these technologies in public agencies.
Through this initiative, Chile is taking a significant step towards ensuring transparency and accountability in the use of algorithms in public administration. The next step will be to carry out a public consultation. The blog, originally published on the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) blog, has been cross-posted to centralize AI-related blogs on the website AI Policy Observatory. The guest blog was authored by María Paz Hermosilla and Ana María Muñoz.
Read also:
- Impact of Alcohol on the Human Body: Nine Aspects of Health Alteration Due to Alcohol Consumption
- Understanding the Concept of Obesity
- Microbiome's Impact on Emotional States, Judgement, and Mental Health Conditions
- Criticisms levelled by a patient advocate towards MPK's judgement on PCR testing procedures
