Inaccurate Scores Due to Coding Errors in Ireland's Leaving Certificate Grading Algorithm: A Case for Responsible AI Governance

October 8, 2020

Thousands of students were affected by errors in the Irish Department of Education's algorithm used to calculate Leaving Certificate exam grades. This incident highlights the importance of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI, as well as the need for robust governance mechanisms. Are you ready to help shape responsible AI? JOIN US.
This AI incident maps to the Govern function in HISPI Project Cerebellum Trusted AI Model (TAIM).
Alleged deployer
irish-department-of-education-and-skills
Alleged developer
irish-department-of-education-and-skills
Alleged harmed parties
leaving-certificate-exam-takers, irish-department-of-education-and-skills

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/86

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.