Network Fairness: A novel complex network approach for tackling inequalities in society and algorithms

Introduction

Social inequalities are on the rise and will have devastating impacts on education, healthcare, economies, and societies for many generations to come. Structural barriers to equality, despite being complex and dynamic, are poorly understood through the lens of complex evolving social networks. More crucially, with the rise of AI and machine-learning algorithms, it is extremely important to detect, forecast, and mitigate those inequalities in a systematic manner in order to avoid unintentional algorithmic consequences.

Proposed Framework

A network fairness framework is proposed, premised on topological and temporal features of social interactions that shape the formation and evolution of inequalities. These features include:

1. People have multiple and correlated attributes that determine how they identify with groups and interact with others.
2. People belong to a variety of social groups with different sizes, hierarchies, and historical precedents.
3. Interactions between people evolve over time in a hybrid space of society and algorithms.

Methodology

To this end, I will develop a suite of dynamical complex network models of inequality that are driven by social theories (e.g., homophily, intersectionality, consolidation) and calibrated and evaluated with big data and network experiments. This will allow us, for the first time, to investigate inequalities that arise from network-based algorithms in a systematic manner.

Network Intervention

More importantly, I will devise a novel methodology of network intervention, which is a set of data-driven principles for tackling network inequalities in a broad range of applications.

Software Development

Finally, based on the models developed in this project, I will create a cutting-edge interactive software – NetFair – to visualize and forecast the evolution of inequalities and implement various fairness criteria. The software will contribute towards bridging the gap between research and policy applications in academia and industry.