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...
评分作者在华尔街对冲基金德绍集团担任过金融工程师,后来去银行做过风险分析,再后来去做旅游网站的用户分析。后来辞职专门揭露美国社会生活背后的各种算法的阴暗面。 书中提到的算法的技术缺陷,我归纳为两点:第一个比较致命:不准确。不准确有两种体现,首先是算法先天的问题,...
评分【春上春树随喜文化】 算法是层级和并行思维的融合 可视化,标准化,规模化,全球化 去中心化,分布式计算,智能虚拟助手 乃至宗教般毋庸置疑的 民主和科学的感召 最后所有人被既得利益者 网罗为囊中之物 辛普森悖论 是《国富论》所谓的 看不见的手 阶层难以穿透 跃迁机会渺茫 ...
评分 评分学术界的人或许会说这里都是例子,比较浅薄,不成体系也没有深度。但我觉得这里的讨论都非常有价值,作者也非常真诚。作为一个比较早的讨论统计和数据方法的伦理以及社会公平的读物来说,我觉得值得赞美一下。
评分这本中文版已经引进了。作者懂技术,更看得懂技术所带来社会动力,乃至一些技术无法预见的后果……当然视角是左翼的
评分羊烤这缠头不是早就黑过了蟆
评分这本中文版已经引进了。作者懂技术,更看得懂技术所带来社会动力,乃至一些技术无法预见的后果……当然视角是左翼的
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!
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