California's Algorithm Considered ZIP Codes in Vaccine Distribution, Allegedly Excluding Low-Income Neighborhoods and Communities of Color

February 12, 2021

California's vaccine distribution algorithm reportedly prioritized ZIP codes over census tracts, leading to concerns about equity and access for vulnerable communities characterized by low Healthy Places Index scores, typically low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. This case underscores the importance of trustworthy AI governance to prevent harm and ensure safe and secure AI practices.

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Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

MAP 1.6 — similarity 0.736, rank 1. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MAP 4.1 — similarity 0.723, rank 2. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MEASURE 2.10 — similarity 0.722, rank 3. TAIM detail and related incidents →

Alleged deployer: california-department-of-public-health
Alleged developer: blue-shield-of-california
Alleged harmed parties: california-low-income-neighborhoods, california-communities-of-color

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/104

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.