mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Bias Mitigation for AI-Feedback Loops in Recommender Systems: A Systematic Literature Review and Taxonomy

arXiv 2509.00109 ↗First posted 28 Aug 2025cs.IR cs.LGcited by 1

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Abstract (arXiv)

Recommender systems continually retrain on user reactions to their own predictions, creating AI feedback loops that amplify biases and diminish fairness over time. Despite this well-known risk, most bias mitigation techniques are tested only on static splits, so their long-term fairness across multiple retraining rounds remains unclear. We therefore present a systematic literature review of bias mitigation methods that explicitly consider AI feedback loops and are validated in multi-round simulations or live A/B tests. Screening 347 papers yields 24 primary studies published between 2019-2025. Each study is coded on six dimensions: mitigation technique, biases addressed, dynamic testing set-up, evaluation focus, application domain, and ML task, organising them into a reusable taxonomy. The taxonomy offers industry practitioners a quick checklist for selecting robust methods and gives researchers a clear roadmap to the field's most urgent gaps. Examples include the shortage of shared simulators, varying evaluation metrics, and the fact that most studies report either fairness or performance; only six use both.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 15 of its 39 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Aug 2025.

Builds on

15 of 39 references.

References · 15

  1. 2019A Framework for Understanding Sources of Harm throughout the Machine Learning Life Cyclecited by 193
  2. 2018Top-K Off-Policy Correction for a REINFORCE Recommender Systemcited by 182
  3. 2022Bias Mitigation for Machine Learning Classifiers: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 125
  4. 2020Feedback Loop and Bias Amplification in Recommender Systemscited by 90
  5. 2023A Survey on Popularity Bias in Recommender Systemscited by 43
  6. 2023Ensuring User-side Fairness in Dynamic Recommender Systemscited by 27
  7. 2020Deep Bayesian Bandits: Exploring in Online Personalized Recommendationscited by 23
  8. 2020Bandit Learning with Delayed Impact of Actionscited by 10
  9. 2020Exploring Longitudinal Effects of Session-based Recommendationscited by 9
  10. 2023Reducing Symbiosis Bias Through Better A/B Tests of Recommendation Algorithmscited by 8
  11. 2020Modeling and Counteracting Exposure Bias in Recommender Systemscited by 7
  12. 2020Zero-Shot Heterogeneous Transfer Learning from Recommender Systems to Cold-Start Search Retrievalcited by 5
3 more
  1. 2024Exploring the Escalation of Source Bias in User, Data, and Recommender System Feedback Loopcited by 5
  2. 2025Enhancing New-item Fairness in Dynamic Recommender Systemscited by 4
  3. 2023Unbiased Learning to Rank with Biased Continuous Feedbackcited by 1

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

1 paper.