Against epistemic transparency of algorithms

Epistemic transparency is often proposed as a solution to algorithmic opacity, wherein revealing the inner logic of an algorithm provides reasons or supporting evidence for the justification of its outputs. I argue that transparency is defective in belief formation and thus inadequate as an epistemology of algorithms. Two objections are developed: \textit{transparency regress} and \textit{bootstrapping}, both rooted in transparency’s status as a time-sliced, `outsourced' inferentialist epistemology. While weaker forms---such as contextual transparency---are briefly considered, the central argument remains that transparency fails to provide justification and should be abandoned as an epistemology of algorithms.