The guide asks about the unequal distribution of power. The useful question is never whether a technology is good or bad — it is who gains from it and who carries the cost, because those are rarely the same people.
One system, three groups: who decides, who gains, who bears the cost of an error.
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Who decides?
Which organisation set this up, and who chose the rule it applies?
Who gains?
Whose costs fall or whose revenue rises when it works as intended?
Who bears the cost of an error?
When it is wrong, who is harmed — and can they find out, or appeal?
Why the third question is the strongest: Almost every system in this course puts the decision and the gain in one place and the cost of error somewhere else. Naming that split is most of a part-c evaluation.
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Real-world examples you can name
COMPAS recidivism scoring — ProPublica investigation May 2016
A commercial risk-scoring tool used in some US courts to estimate how likely a defendant was to reoffend. Journalists found that among people who did not go on to reoffend, Black defendants were roughly twice as likely as white defendants to have been labelled high risk. The company disputed the measure of fairness used, and the argument that followed showed that competing definitions of a fair algorithm cannot all be satisfied at once.
Who it affected: Defendants whose bail and sentencing decisions were informed by the score.
Platform work and employment status — UK Supreme Court ruling on Uber drivers February 2021; EU platform work directive adopted 2024
Work is allocated by an app rather than a manager. The UK Supreme Court held that Uber drivers are workers entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay, and the EU has since legislated a presumption of employment where a platform controls the work.
Who it affected: Couriers and drivers, and companies whose model assumed self-employment.
Agbogbloshie e-waste site, Accra — scrapyard cleared July 2021
A scrapyard where imported electronics were stripped and cables burned to recover copper, releasing lead and dioxins. It became the standard example of e-waste exported from rich countries to poor ones. Authorities demolished much of the site in 2021; the trade moved rather than stopped.
Who it affected: Workers and nearby residents exposed to heavy metals and smoke.
| System | Decides and gains | Bears the error |
|---|---|---|
| Risk scoring in courts | The court, in time saved | The defendant, in time served |
| Gig work allocation | The platform, in efficiency | The worker, in unpredictable income |
| Recycling old devices | The buyer, in a cheap upgrade | The workers who strip them, in their health |
How this is tested — almost every part c is a distribution question wearing different clothes. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — structured question
- Part c: evaluate the impact of a described system
- Part b: explain who is disadvantaged by it
Paper 2 — source-based question
- Q4: synthesise sources with different interests
- HL Paper 3: recommend, and say who pays for your recommendation
The trap: “it affects society”: Society is not a group. Name the specific people who gain and the specific people who lose, or the answer stays in the low bands.
Explain one reason why the benefits and costs of an automated system are often unequally distributed.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Discuss the claim that automated decision-making shifts risk from organisations to individuals.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.