Build care into technology
Embed protective mechanisms into designs, data systems, and code so prevention does not depend solely on human oversight.
Algorithm—Love Thy Neighbor · A New Social Contract for the Age of Algorithms
Algorithmic Duty of Care
What happens when the systems we build to solve problems have no built-in responsibility for the people they affect?
Care before harm
Algorithms now shape decisions in government, finance, education, employment, healthcare, and everyday digital life. Yet many systems are developed to complete a task without an embedded duty of care toward the people living with the consequences.
In their 2025 book Algorithmic Duty of Care, Dr. Cindy Mason and Curt Hall propose bringing an ancient ethical and legal principle into modern technology: design algorithms and data systems to anticipate, recognize, and help prevent foreseeable human harm—not merely respond after a crisis.
“We are not just the users of these algorithms and models, we are their authors and inventors.”
— Cindy Mason, Notes to the Reader, Algorithmic Duty of Care (2025)
From kings to code
The book draws on the Magna Carta and common-law traditions to ask what happens when extraordinary power is exercised through digital systems. Today's “digital kings” are not simply machines: they include the people and institutions controlling vast algorithmic infrastructures. Power should answer to those it affects.
When human oversight fails
The Horizon IT scandal in the United Kingdom, Robodebt in Australia, and the Dutch childcare benefits scandal reveal how technical failure and institutional indifference can reinforce one another. Warnings and complaints can be ignored even while harms continue for years.
Two complementary responses
Build accountability into law
Understand the rapidly developing laws, policies, and legal frameworks emerging around the world.
These approaches work together. The book does not present ADOC as a silver bullet; it calls for technical safeguards alongside legal frameworks, institutional responsibility, and human oversight.
A published foundation
Algorithmic Duty of Care: Algorithm—Love Thy Neighbor: A New Social Contract for the Age of Algorithms is a 2025 book by Dr. Cindy Mason and Curt Hall, and a companion to the Artificial Compassion project.