Northpoint Inc.

Case Study

Business Ethics and Social

Responsibility

Team Members
1. Sreehari Nair
2. Oussama Saoudi
3. Albin Baby
4. Daniyal Kazi

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1. What are the alternatives you have ?

1. Internal Evaluation and Improvement

Conduct internal evaluations with fair auditors to find biases.
2. Additional User Training
Enhance judges' instruction in how to properly evaluate COMPAS data.
3. Collaboration and Transparency
Maintain appropriate levels of confidentiality while working with outside
professionals.
4. Disclosure of Specified Information
Provide relevant information about bias to outside experts for assessment.
2. What is the value-based position you want to take ?
Prioritize fairness, transparency, and accountability by making an Ethical AI for Fairer
Criminal Justice in this particular-case.

1. Transparency and Accountability

• Brennan should publicly acknowledge the concerns raised by ProPublica and

express a commitment to addressing them.

• Establish a clear channel for receiving feedback and complaints from

stakeholders, including judges, defendants, and advocacy groups, to
continuously improve the system's fairness
2. Independent Audits and Research
• Collaboration with independent research institutions and experts to conduct
thorough audits of the COMPAS software.
• Share findings, both positive and negative, openly with the public to demonstrate a
commitment to transparency.
3. Ethical AI Development
• Integrate ethical considerations into the development process, including addressing
potential biases in the training data.
• Train the algorithm to be aware of and correct for societal biases rather than
perpetuate them.
4. Stakeholder Engagement
• Engage in a dialogue with judges, advocacy groups, and affected communities to
understand their concerns and needs better.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to co-create solutions that ensure the COMPAS system
aligns with societal values of fairness and justice.
3. What is at stake or at risk for all affected parties, including Brennan? For affected party, Summarize: (Oussama)

• What is at stake?
• How is fairness defined?

• Northpointe/COMPAS: for Northpointe the company's whole existence is at stake, since the Idea is to
produce the product for juratory use, and it is argued that it doesn't work since the law should be accurate
and the best way to implement innovation is with care and with a long time with lot of testing, and for
something that was done in a particular way for thousands of years, I don't think it will be implemented fully
in a short time
• Judges and Criminal Justice System: for the Criminal Justice System, this presents a huge risk, as AI will be
implemented in most fields, the Criminal Justice System could face pressure to implement this technology,
and here we are talking about something that was done in particular way for all human history, and all
humans agree that the human judgment is the most is the fairest
• Defendants and Individuals in the Criminal Justice System: with the implementation of this technology,
a lot of people will get negative decisions simply due to things out of their actions, their genes, race,
friends, and upbringings. And defendants will lose the right to know the reason behind the decisions
taken, since there is no trace for them.
• Communities and Advocacy Groups: takes: Communities affected by criminal justice decisions,
particularly those disproportionately impacted by historical biases, have a stake in fair and equitable
outcomes. Advocacy groups are concerned about systemic bias perpetuation.
• Mothy Brennan (Founder and CEO of Northpointe): Brennan's personal reputation and legacy are on
the line. His leadership and decision-making regarding the COMPAS controversy will shape perceptions
of Northpointe's commitment to ethical AI. If Brennan fails to address the concerns effectively, he may
face personal and professional consequences, including damage to his reputation as a technology
leader and ethical entrepreneur.
• How is fairness defined

• In the context of the criminal justice system, fairness is defined by the view, that we can't base it
on population but on individuality, for a matter of justice every single case should be judged
separately from other cases, from biases, and from probabilities and statistics. It is true that some
races in some countries statistically have more tendency to do crime than others, this is factual,
people born with the killer gene, are relatively more likely to be the ones to commit murders, and if
we want to make a technology to predict crimes, we must put in consideration these biases, even if
they are not fair, but we should never base a justice decision on them. Fairness is to treat every case
by the things related to its evidence, witnesses, … people deserve a fair trial, and deserve to know the
reason behind the decision.
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