Uber Launched Opaque Algorithm That Changes Drivers' Payments in the US

February 10, 2022

Uber introduced a new, enigmatic algorithm to calculate driver pay across the United States, reportedly causing drivers to face lower fares, perplexing fare decreases, and reduced rides. This raises questions about the importance of transparency in AI governance, highlighting the need for trustworthy and responsible AI practices.

For those interested in shaping the development of the HISPI Project Cerebellum TAIM (Govern), this incident serves as an example of how opaque AI systems can negatively impact stakeholders. JOIN US to learn more about our initiative focused on preventing harm and establishing guardrails for AI.

Matched TAIM controls

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

MAP 1.6 — similarity 0.674, rank 1. TAIM detail and related incidents →
GOVERN 4.2 — similarity 0.671, rank 2. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MAP 3.2 — similarity 0.669, rank 3. TAIM detail and related incidents →

Alleged deployer: uber
Alleged developer: uber
Alleged harmed parties: uber-drivers

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/203

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.