The social and cultural definition of Algorithms is much broader than the technical one. As stated by Peters (2016), Each algorithm is a formula made by programmable procedures in which most of the “values” that matter to us is not in the technical system but in the work that makes them. One important instance of the social implications made by the current algorithmic culture, is using AI in surveillance apparatuses with no laws to regulate it, which meant putting so many people’s privacy and safety at stake. Such technologies are fed with data to generate decisions, which means that the operators, who are de facto a small group of people, and the data they choose to feed the technologies with, are controlling the results the systems show. For example, the facial recognition system that Amazon sold to the FBI have been proved to be racial and gender biased, and it has not yet been legally suspended! We depend on technologies that we do not really know in our everyday life with out caring about the consequences… Algorithms themselves are not the problem, the issue rather lies in how they were made, by whom, and most importantly how can regulate its misuse or correct its unwanted implications.
References:
Benjamin Peters, 2016. "Algorithms, Tarleton Gillespie" pp.19-21.