The French company Criteo, which specializes in advertising targeting, has announced a partnership with the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria). It will consist of creating a project called FAIRPLAY, which will mobilize researchers and engineers in artificial intelligence to study the algorithms used in internet advertising. The objective is to ensure that the AIs do not have discriminating results, and to correct them if necessary.
Criteo: towards “transparent and fair” advertising marketplaces
The team that will carry out these studies will be made up of five researchers from Inria and affiliated schools (ENSAE Paris and École Polytechnique), as well as four researchers and engineers from Criteo.
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Behind FAIRPLAY hides an unequivocal observation: although the algorithms which choose the advertisement presented to an Internet user cannot use sensitive information, certain results sometimes take on discriminatory aspects. To correct this problem, it is necessary to study and understand the hundreds of criteria reviewed in ad targeting, as well as their hierarchy. ” The question now arises of knowing how to measure the extent to which algorithms are discriminating, while respecting data protection.» Explain Vianney Perchet, scientific manager of FAIRPLAY.
If an advertisement on a website cannot directly know the gender of an Internet user, it can guess it by analyzing the sites consulted beforehand. ” Typically, in an auction system, decisions are made asynchronously and decentralized. The fault does not necessarily lie with the advertiser, because the final decision to print an advertisement is the result of a chain of intermediate decisions made by different agents.,” adds Patrick Loiseau, scientific co-manager of the project.
These points are logically central for a platform like Criteo. Its algorithms are put at the service of advertisers and sellers of advertising space. Being able to ensure a transparent market place for Internet users, advertisers and sellers, while adopting an ethical approach, is certainly avant-garde, even unprecedented in the sector.
Avant-garde, original, but also far-sighted
Algorithms, in advertising, and in other uses are gradually being controlled by official bodies. Europe agreed on the contours of the Digital Markets Act, and added an unexpected point: a restriction on the association of personal data from several sources for advertising targeting purposes. A strategic element for fairer competition between players like Criteo, against others like Facebook or Google.
A second long-awaited European text, the Digital Services Act, must also regulate the major platforms and their algorithms. It will allow regulators to control two automated scenarios: content removals, and advertising targeting.
In addition to these two frameworks, there is a third presented a year ago: the framework for artificial intelligence in Europe, regardless of the size of the company.
Between the ATT introduced by Apple, the end of the exploitation of third-party cookies wanted by Google, and the desire for a healthier European advertising market, Criteo, which has made targeting its expertise, seems to be taking the measures that are impose.