Does Society Place Too Much Trust in Machines?

Trust thought for the day to day - another example of how society is placing far too much trust in machines and not enough trust in people. I am genuinely sickened by this - and remember this is just a bog standard accounting programme, no fancy AI. Be Warned.

The Horizon computer programme created by Futitsu for the Post Office in 1999 resulted in the incorrect conviction, often jailing of hundreds of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses in the UK. It is a genuinely horrific story of lives and reputations ruined simply because a computer programme didn't work properly and management decided to believe the computer and the manufacturer and not the valued and respected employees. Someone will have looked at the dramatic increase in fraud and congratulated themselves on how their new programme was catching so many more bad people rather than questioning the data.

"So far, nobody at the Post Office or Fujitsu has been held accountable, although the High Court judge said he would refer Fujitsu to the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible further action because he had "grave concerns" about the evidence of the company's employees."

We are trusting machines too much and people not enough. Really.

Read the full article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56859357