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Marketplace Tech

NYC's child welfare agency uses AI to scrutinize marginalized families, recent investigation finds

Marketplace Tech

American Public Media

Technology, News

4.61.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The New York City Administration for Children's Services, or ACS, has been using predictive artificial intelligence to flag some families for greater scrutiny, according to a recent investigation by The Markup. Colin Lecher reported the story and tells Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino, like all AI systems, it can encode historical biases.

Transcript

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1:31.8

Should AI decide which families to watch for child abuse? From American public media,

1:38.7

this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty Carrino.

2:03.0

The New York City Administration for Children's Services, or ACS, has been using predictive artificial intelligence to flag some families for greater scrutiny. That's according to a recent investigation by the markup. It found the agency uses machine learning algorithms to score families

2:09.4

for risk. The system weighs 279 variables, from past involvement with ACS to socioeconomic factors like neighborhood.

2:19.7

Families deemed highest risk the department keeps closer tabs on.

2:24.3

Colin Letcher reported the story and says, like all AI systems, it can encode historical biases.

2:31.7

Basically, what it does is it looked at cases from 2013 and 2014 that ended in tragedy

2:37.7

in some way in a child being severely harmed. And it takes a look at those cases. It says,

...

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