Unit 8 · AI & the Impact of Computing · Lesson 8.5 · Lab 8.5

Lab: Audit a System

Your team takes a real system you use and audits it like a professional: what it learns from, what it’s trying to do, who wins, who loses — and what nobody meant to happen.

Big Idea 5 — Impact of ComputingCED 5.1 · 5.3 · Lab 8.5

The audit questions are AP-TESTABLE skills: identifying effects and bias with a mechanism.

Before this lab

No reading — audit. Your teacher assigns or approves a system. Keep 8.4’s three sources open.

1

Where We Are

People→ Bits→ Programs→ Internet→ Security→ Big Data→ Impact

Impact, applied to something real. Structured, because unstructured audits turn into opinions.

2

Pick a System

Lab 8.5 — Audit a System

Choose one (or get another approved): a recommendation feed (videos, music, posts) · a navigation app · an automated grading or plagiarism tool · a content-moderation system.

Deliverable: a one-page audit, presented in three minutes, with the mechanism named in every claim.

The mechanism test. Every claim must say how. “Feeds are bad for teens” fails. “The feed optimizes for watch time, and outrage holds attention, so it shows more outrage without anyone choosing that” passes.
3

The Worksheet

Fill this in as a team. The page builds your one-page audit as you type. Nothing is saved or sent — copy your audit into your class doc before you close the tab.

4

Check

Four questions: is this claim an audit finding, or an opinion?

0 of 4 answered
5

Connections

Uses 8.4 — the three sources: data, design, use.
Next in 8.6 — the frame you used today — who benefits, who’s harmed, what nobody planned — becomes the exam’s most common BI5 question.
Returns in 8.15 — the written response analyzes an unfamiliar innovation exactly like this.
← 8.4 Computing Bias