A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on mathematical modeling—a pervasive new force in society that threatens to undermine democracy and widen inequality.
We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives—where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health insurance—are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated. But as Cathy O’Neil reveals in this shocking book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If a poor student can’t get a loan because a lending model deems him too risky (by virtue of his race or neighborhood), he’s then cut off from the kind of education that could pull him out of poverty, and a vicious spiral ensues. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a “toxic cocktail for democracy.” Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.
Tracing the arc of a person’s life, from college to retirement, O’Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. Models that score teachers and students, sort resumes, grant (or deny) loans, evaluate workers, target voters, set parole, and monitor our health—all have pernicious feedback loops. They don’t simply describe reality, as proponents claim, they change reality, by expanding or limiting the opportunities people have. O’Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for how their algorithms are being used. But in the end, it’s up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives. This important book empowers us to ask the tough questions, uncover the truth, and demand change.
Catherine ("Cathy") Helen O'Neil is an American mathematician and the author of the blog mathbabe.org and several books on data science, including Weapons of Math Destruction. She was the former Director of the Lede Program in Data Practices at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Tow Center and was employed as Data Science Consultant at Johnson Research Labs.
She lives in New York City and is active in the Occupy movement.
文 / 董小琳 我们可以将时代划分为:有大数据之前 和 有大数据之后。 为什么要这么分? 因为,谁也不能忽视,大数据对我们每个人生活方方面面的影响。 比如说: 之前,你的日子过得好不好,恐怕除了家里人,只有几个关系特别好的朋友知道。 甚至,在亲戚比较多的大家庭里,你还...
评分 评分大数据是近年来特别火热的词,不管是不是互联网企业,都随时往大数据身上靠,仿佛一下子能提高自己逼格一样。在这种火热的气氛中,很多人往往对于大数据能做什么,做的好事多还是坏事多,不去反思和检讨,也很少有人愿意去听别人的反思。 音乐平台总监们的失算 记得《中国新说...
评分观点有意思,但是这样就写出书了。感觉就是博文综合。
评分通篇读完觉得稍空了一些 中途回想起实习时的贷款延期批准模型 误判率数字背后都联系着顾客生计 唉想来不止是一个技术问题这么简单 作者自己从业经历背景也蛮厉害的 总体论调不反智!
评分Big data ethics, 数据和模型导致了社会资源的重新配置很有启发。抒情和道德抨击减一星。
评分通篇读完觉得稍空了一些 中途回想起实习时的贷款延期批准模型 误判率数字背后都联系着顾客生计 唉想来不止是一个技术问题这么简单 作者自己从业经历背景也蛮厉害的 总体论调不反智!
评分各种案例堆积,看不下去。对每个模型bad feedback loop都分析了,但是alternative呢?transparency怎么做不够深入
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