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Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

github.com

11–20 of 40 posts

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#11
It's weird that we don't have a profile page for every official on a web site, detailing this official's performance, and for their supervisor, also a list of spendings overseen by this official and a button 'open a case for persecution'.

I mean, seriously? We have such things in commercial enterprises don't we?

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#12
post #8

This is the same as "fighting massive surveillance with X", the root of the problem is how the system works. These kind of problems cannot be solved by anything but a massive change in the status quo. As long as corrupt politicians are in power they cannot care less for evidence of potential wrongdoings. In Mexico a renowned writer once said about that: "when the impunity is absolute the appearances are for losers"

The impact of such an initiative may not be big, or even disruptive, but I'd say it at least adds cost to keep the impunity status up.

Also, given a project like this has significant findings and gets picked up by traditional or social media, it may act as a catalyst to public outrage against said impunity, which may trigger more significant changes.

'Changing how a system works' rarely happens as a result of a single event. Even with changes which have a definite turning point, this turning point is often a drop in a bucket which started to be filled much before.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#13
post #8

This is the same as "fighting massive surveillance with X", the root of the problem is how the system works. These kind of problems cannot be solved by anything but a massive change in the status quo. As long as corrupt politicians are in power they cannot care less for evidence of potential wrongdoings. In Mexico a renowned writer once said about that: "when the impunity is absolute the appearances are for losers"

Can you tell me the writer's name?

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#14

> The idea of automating the analysis of public accounts is unprecedented: engaging the population on training our platform in the analysis and audit. I was expecting something live.

To be fair, this is an ambitious goal, and the project is not that old.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#15
post #8

This is the same as "fighting massive surveillance with X", the root of the problem is how the system works. These kind of problems cannot be solved by anything but a massive change in the status quo. As long as corrupt politicians are in power they cannot care less for evidence of potential wrongdoings. In Mexico a renowned writer once said about that: "when the impunity is absolute the appearances are for losers"

> As long as corrupt politicians are in power

There is no way to filter the good politicians from the bad, when interests are at stake. If you want to lessen corruption, then you need to balance the distribution of power and encourage competition.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#17

What is the project about? Yeah, the read-me talks about machine learning, and fighting corruption, but it makes no effort to tell how one would help the other.

This seems to explain the project in much greater detail:

https://www.catarse.me/serenata (Portuguese only)

Curiously, Google Translate doesn't seem to understand this page's content and fails to translate it here.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#18
post #15
post #8

This is the same as "fighting massive surveillance with X", the root of the problem is how the system works. These kind of problems cannot be solved by anything but a massive change in the status quo. As long as corrupt politicians are in power they cannot care less for evidence of potential wrongdoings. In Mexico a renowned writer once said about that: "when the impunity is absolute the appearances are for losers"

> As long as corrupt politicians are in power There is no way to filter the good politicians from the bad, when interests are at stake. If you want to lessen corruption, then you need to balance the distribution of power and encourage competition.

I used to think your idea could be a solution but is too slow and also there is an "infinite" input of new corrupt politicians. Doing some numbers will render that trying to vote them out every 4 years doesn't sound like a win. Since we need defence against self-corruption, the source of all evil, the only I can think of is the Non-Aggression Principle and enforce respect for private property https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-aggression_principle

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#19

What is the project about? Yeah, the read-me talks about machine learning, and fighting corruption, but it makes no effort to tell how one would help the other.

This seems to explain the project in much greater detail: https://www.catarse.me/serenata (Portuguese only) Curiously, Google Translate doesn't seem to understand this page's content and fails to translate it here.

The idea seems to be fighting a specific kind of corruption. Congressmen have an office budget and many use invalid or suspicious receipts to justify expenses. The idea is to use bots to analyze and red flag suspicious receipts and then use evidence as proof in justice.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#20
post #13
post #8

This is the same as "fighting massive surveillance with X", the root of the problem is how the system works. These kind of problems cannot be solved by anything but a massive change in the status quo. As long as corrupt politicians are in power they cannot care less for evidence of potential wrongdoings. In Mexico a renowned writer once said about that: "when the impunity is absolute the appearances are for losers"

Can you tell me the writer's name?

Carlos Monsivaís https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Monsiv%C3%A1is
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