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We usually herald artificial intelligence as the future of technology.

Last year Los Angeles City officials started using AI to make the cities 7,000 miles

of water pipes less susceptible to earthquakes.

Pharmaceutical companies are using AI to speed up the process of drug discovery, and researchers

are using algorithms to turn smart watches into coronavirus detection devices.

But last month, AI made headlines for a very different reason.

We're going to use vaccines!

We're going to use vaccines!

Now!

After A-level exams were canceled due to the coronavirus, the British government came

up with what it thought was a clever workaround.

It would use an algorithm based on class rankings and a host of other factors to estimate

students A-level results, and those results would then be sent off to universities.

But when students received their results, they quickly spotted a pattern.

The AI had assigned lower marks to students from what we would call in the United States,

public schools, and higher marks to students from private schools.

The algorithm had sussed out that students from that second group had historically gotten

better test results, so it had lowered the projected marks of students from low performing

schools, even if the students themselves were high achieving.

It's just heartbreaking seeing my friends upset because they haven't got in because

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