Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Longlisted for the National Book AwardÂ | New York Times Bestseller

A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.

We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our livesâ€”where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health insuranceâ€”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 Oâ€™Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when theyâ€™re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If a poor student canâ€™t get a loan because a lending model deems him too risky (by virtue of his zip code), heâ€™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 â€œtoxic cocktail for democracy.â€ Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.

Tracing the arc of a personâ€™s life, Oâ€™Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. These â€œweapons of math destructionâ€ score teachers and students, sort rÃ©sumÃ©s, grant (or deny) loans, evaluate workers, target voters, set parole, and monitor our health.

Oâ€™Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, itâ€™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.
Country USA
Brand CROWN
Manufacturer Crown
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 9780553418811
ReleaseDate 2016-09-06
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780553418811

Country	USA
Brand	CROWN
Manufacturer	Crown
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	9780553418811
ReleaseDate	2016-09-06
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780553418811

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

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