A mother in Gothenburg, Sweden, took the city to court after an algorithm used to allocate school places sent her son to a school miles from home. The algorithm, introduced in 2020 to streamline admissions, instead caused chaos by placing hundreds of children in schools across rivers and highways, with journeys that were impractical or dangerous.
Researcher and former lawyer Charlotta Kronblad, whose 12-year-old son was among those affected, discovered that the algorithm had been given flawed instructions. It calculated distances 'as the crow flies' rather than actual walking routes, ignoring Gothenburg's major river. This meant children faced hour-long commutes to schools on the opposite riverbank, with no feasible walking or cycling path.
City auditors confirmed the error nearly a year later, but for around 700 children already placed, nothing changed. The city insisted individual appeals were sufficient, but Kronblad argued that the systemic error could not be fixed case by case. The algorithm's decisions created a cascade of displacements, making the injustice hard to trace.
Kronblad sued the city as part of a research project to test accountability. The algorithm won in court, highlighting the difficulty of challenging automated systems. She drew parallels to other European scandals, such as the UK Post Office Horizon IT system and the Dutch childcare benefits scandal, where flawed algorithms caused widespread harm without timely accountability.
