A couple years ago Patricia returned to the UK to take up an academic position at a British University. She had been out in UK for over 20 years working for universities at number of countries, and had a good professional employment record. She decided to open a bank account with one of the large banks that had branch on the campus.
She met the bank manager, was given the necessary forms, duly completed them. A few days later she returned to the bank to open her account. Much to her surprise, she was told that she could only have cash account, i.e., she not be given any bank cards, cheque book, or the like, nor could she have any overdraft facility.
Patricia again met with the bank manager as she naturally felt there must have been some misunderstanding. Key points here are that she already had a bank account in the UK since her student days (although this had been largely unused during her years away), she owed no money on credit cards or the like, was UK citizen, and had a good track record with bank overseas. In addition, her salary from the university was to be paid into her account each month.
Despite her explaining these points, the bank manager was adamant that she could only have cash accounts. When asked to explain this decision, the bank manager indicated that it was not in fact her decision, but a decision made by an expert system. The bank always used this computer technology when making decisions about opening accounts for new clients, and in fact the bank manager could not overrule the restrictions that the expert systems imposed. In short, the expert system was empowered in the decision-making process to such an extent that it actually replaced the human decision-making process. The bank manager went on to explain that the problem was that the expert system had not previously encountered a person with Patricia’s particular background. And the key point to the computer was the extensive years of residency outside the UK.
To what extent do you think it is appropriate to replace the human decision-making process with the computer technologies such as expert systems?
If the decisions to be made involve emotional feelings or considerations from the user then computer technologies such as expert systems are not appropriate to replace human decision-making process because unlike human expert systems cannot give or respond to any considerations to a user's request. Computer technologies such as the expert system give probabilistic results that came from expert persons. It gathers facts with the experts and result to a decision for a certain process. Once the expert system comes up with the result or decision, it then should be considered as final and be implemented. For a human decision making, a favorable decision can be given to the requester. So, computer technologies like expert system are not intended for transactions that will involve any emotional feelings or considerations from the user depending on the situation. Unlike human, expert system cannot give or respond to any considerations to your request.
During the conversation Patricia asked the bank manager whether she felt that it was appropriate for the expert system to be empowered in this way. The response she obtained was that it was a great idea because computers do not make mistakes. What do you think about this comment? Do computers make mistakes? Is any computerized system free from mistakes? Should we be educating people to believe that computers are infallible are computers infallible? What do you think are the ramifications of believing in infallible computerized systems?
Computer doesn't make any mistake and it was true, but in the consideration of the system's programmer that the said system is free from all bugs that might harm the entire functionality. In Patricia's case, it is an opportunity to inform the entire client, users and all the citizen of the web that computer reliability has its own limitations.
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