Low uptake of ‘Smart Pricing’ feature among black hosts increased earnings gap.
By Dave Lee and Madhumita Murgia for Financial Times on May 13, 2021
Low uptake of ‘Smart Pricing’ feature among black hosts increased earnings gap.
By Dave Lee and Madhumita Murgia for Financial Times on May 13, 2021
Racial discrimination in dynamic pricing algorithms is neither surprising nor new. VentureBeat writes about another recent study that supports these findings, in the context of dynamic pricing algorithms used by ride-hailing companies such as Uber, Lyft and other apps. Neighbourhoods that were poorer and with larger non-white populations were significantly associated with higher fare prices. A similar issue was discovered in Airbnb’s ‘Smart Pricing’ feature which aims to help hosts secure more bookings. It turned out to be detrimental to black hosts leading to greater social inequality (even if unintentional).
Continue reading “Uber-racist: Racial discrimination in dynamic pricing algorithms”Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Baskerville 2 by Anders Noren.