Unsafe at Any Algorithm

In the autumn of 1965, a thirty-one-year-old lawyer named Ralph Nader published a book arguing that General Motors was selling cars it knew to be dangerous. Nader focused on the Chevrolet Corvair, whose rear suspension design made it prone to rolling over. GM’s response was not to fix the car; it was to hire private detectives to dig up dirt on Nader. Investigators followed him, questioned his acquaintances about his sex life and his political views, and arranged for women to approach him in public and try to entrap him. When Nader reported the surveillance, GM’s president was summoned to testify before the United States Senate and had to apologize on national television. The resulting publicity sold more copies of Nader’s book than any advertising campaign could have, and Congress passed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act later that same year. If you want to understand how industries respond to safety regulation, this story is good place to start. The playbook has not…