Algorithms in Public Policy Working

Bryant Walker Smith, an associate professor in the School of Law and the School of Engineering at the University of South Carolina and affiliate scholar at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, will be presenting his research.

Abstract: "Does the public trust the technology?" is a familiar but unhelpful question in discussions about particular innovations. Bryant Walker Smith shifts this inquiry to instead ask whether "the companies behind a given technology are worthy of the public's trust." To do this, he proposes an affirmative theory of "the trustworthy company," identify conduct that signals a lack of trustworthiness, and describe how existing legal doctrines can be reconceived as trust-based duties. Automated driving provides the principal case study throughout.