Mutant Algorithms Are Coming for Your Education

Bad algorithms have been causing a lot of trouble lately. One, designed to supplant exam scores, blew the college prospects of untold numbers of students attending International Baccalaureate schools around the world. Then another did the same for even more students in lieu of the U.K.’s high-stakes “A-level” exams, prompting Prime Minister Boris Johnson to call it a “mutant” and ultimately use human-assigned grades instead.

Actually, I would argue that pretty much all algorithms are mutants. People just haven’t noticed yet.