The Taylor & Francis Group offers “Artificial Intelligence and Evaluation” as a free download in e-pub and pdf formats. Edited by Steffen Bohni Nielsen, Francesco Mazzeo Rinaldi, and Gustav Jakob Petersson, this 2024 publication includes 14 chapters dealing with the place of artificial intelligence (AI) in evaluation and the impacts of this technology on our practice.
Here are some key ideas from the book.
Emerging technologies offer a wealth of new information to evaluators.
Text analysis is reinforced through quantification and understanding of stakeholder preferences.
AI enables automation of tasks, efficient data processing, and predictive analysis. However, it also raises concerns about transparency, bias, and the need for human oversight.
The ethical implications of using AI and big data in evaluation are a recurring theme. Concerns include data privacy, bias in algorithms, and the potential for discrimination.
The algorithmization of policy and policy analysis is a risk: value judgements are implicit in all algorithms.
The book considers how AI may alter the roles and skills required of evaluators, potentially displacing some tasks while augmenting or creating others