A criminal is standing in the courtroom. He is waiting to hear the judge's sentence and learn how the rest of his life will unfold. While he waits, complex algorithms are employed to analyze details of his case and decide his fate.

This could be the future—sentencing American citizens based on statistics.

There's already a significant movement in the United States to use predictive algorithms to sentence criminals. These algorithms analyze a person's criminal record, age, gender, family background and other data to determine whether he or she is likely to reoffend after serving a specific period of time....