Algorithmic Audit

An algorithmic audit is an independent investigation of an algorithmic system's outputs, processes, or impacts to determine whether it operates according to stated criteria, legal requirements, or normative standards. The audit is the primary mechanism for creating structural coupling between algorithmic governance systems and the social systems that seek to hold them accountable — but it is a coupling that operates through information, not through power. An audit can reveal bias or harm; it cannot compel correction. The distinction between auditing and governing is the central tension in the regulation of algorithmic power: transparency without authority is merely surveillance in another form. The algorithmic audit is a necessary but insufficient tool; its effectiveness depends entirely on whether the institutions that receive its findings have the capacity to act on them.