&gt; <i>Schneier is discussing an unpleasant fact; unbiased algorithms often discover that things we previously attributed to bias were actually unbiased predictors.</i><p>That&#x27;s an interesting interpretation.  To me it looks more like he&#x27;s discussing that bias can (probably will) be baked into algorithms even unintentionally and often subtly.  And that highlights a significant difficulty with the &quot;unbiased predictors&quot; thing you say: can you distinguish between an unbiased algorithm discovering that something that looks like bias isn&#x27;t and bias being subtly baked into the algorithm?  I think that&#x27;s where the &quot;we need to understand what we expect out of the algorithms and ensure the expectations are met&quot; bit comes in, at least in part.