AI engineering glossary · AI ethics law product
What is fairness impossibility theorem?
Fairness impossibility theorem (also called impossibility of fairness): A family of results showing that several intuitive fairness criteria, such as equal error rates and equal predictive value, cannot all hold at once when groups have different base rates, except in trivial cases. It means fairness always involves choosing which trade-off to accept.
Fairness impossibility theorem: an example
In a risk-scoring system where two groups have different actual default rates, making scores equally reliable for both groups forces unequal false positive rates between them.
Related terms
More AI ethics law product terms
- Fairness metric
- Fairness through unawareness
- Fallback behavior
- Federated learning
- Four-fifths rule
- GDPR
- General-purpose AI model
- Global explanation
Where you learn it
Fairness impossibility theorem is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.