Chapter 8 | Computer Reliability

While the movie displays no direct examples of computer reliability or a lack thereof, there are a few connections that can be made between the movie and the concept as a whole.

Software Errors

In the movie 21, the casino security team is seen discussing its plans to install biometric facial recognition security software and how its implementation will severely reduce the amount of cheating. In addition, this software will be able to detect suspicious activity more quickly and efficiently than a team of human security agents could. However, no technology is free from failure, and one can envision particularly with a technology like this, that must concentrate a large number of specific details and interactions, that it will not be 100% reliable in every instance, allowing some suspicious behaviors to slip through undetected.

Moral Responsibility

One concern that this chapter raises is who the moral responsibility should fall on in the event that a piece of technology fails. While the biometric software does not have life or death consequences like those discussed in the book, there is still a possibility that the security team could wrongly jail or ban someone based on the software's recommendation. In this case, should the moral responsibility fall on the enforcers or the developers of the software or is the failure simply dismissed as a "minor" technological shortcoming.

Real Life Examples

It is a common practice for establishments such as casinos to outsource cybersecurity to a third party company that is better equipped with the necessary intelligence of how to secure the systems. In 2013 a massive database breach resulted in the release of customers' credit card numbers, leading the casino to file a lawsuit against the cybersecurity firm entrusted with securing their database. While the fault falls on the cybersecurity firm (as opposed to being an issue of computer reliability) for misrepresenting its work and not performing a thorough investigation into the breach, the casino also has a moral responsibility to its customers and should have more thoroughly vetted the company before outsourcing such a critical role [1].

While the central gambling in the movie revolves around the game of blackjack, slot machines, which are prominently displayed in a couple scenes, are also subject to machine malfunctions. In recent years, several lawsuits have been filed over casinos denying jackpots to customers whose slot machines displayed and suggested an enormous cash out. Casinos have a moral responsibility to prevent such emotional turmoil by avoiding negligence and regularly inspecting and maintaining their lottery equipment [2].

Bias in Artificial Intelligence Training Data

If casinos were to widely implement biometric facial recognition software on a large-scale basis, training data bias would be a major concern. Current artificial intelligence systems seemingly regularly misgender darker skinned individuals and also have trouble identifying them in the first place. It is critical that the training data sets are actually representative and can correctly identify the human population, otherwise the machine learning algorithms are at risk for perpetuating (usually historical) biases. Additionally, the potential that an individual is misidentified ties in to the discussion of moral responsibility above, because an individual could suffer negative consequences as a result of technical failure.

References

[1] Melendez, Steven. “Security Firm Sued Over Alleged Failure To End Casino Cyberattack.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 19 Jan. 2016, www.fastcompany.com/3055623/security-firm-sued-over-alleged-failure-to-end-casino-cyberattack. Accessed 4 May 2021.

[2] Wattles, Jackie. “Woman Sues Casino That Offered Her Steak Dinner Instead of $43 Million Jackpot.” CNN | Money, 15 June 2017, money.cnn.com/2017/06/15/news/jackpot-steak-dinner-katrina-bookman-lawsuit/index.html. Accessed 4 May 2021.