Tech We Trust

Tech We Trust, in partnership with Digital Skills Education, is an interactive lesson demonstrating how personal data is used in algorithms and how programmers can (often accidentally) include their own bias. The activity challenges young people aged 10+ to create a fair and unbiased algorithm to determine who received a free ticket to a local attraction.

Participants are asked to weigh eight variables before inputting these into an algorithm using a Python-based platform. The programme then highlights specific outcomes which could be considered unfair or biased based on circumstances outwith the algorithm’s scope. It also features three talks about data and algorithms as well as several professional development sessions and resources for educators.

The activity saw 325 primary and 500 secondary school pupils (including 36% female participants) take part in a live online lesson during it’s initial delivery.

“I have used this lesson twice now with students and it has been incredible. Such a great way of talking about bias in algorithms! We used it to intro the idea of algorithmic bias before talking about it in terms of AI. Then we compared and contrasted the algorithm from Tech we Trust with an AI algorithm.” - Educator

Each Ethics in Tech activity is still publicly and freely available for educators to use to engage and enlighten young people about ethics in digital technology. Learn more about ‘Tech We Trust’.