![]() ![]() They are often proprietary or otherwise shielded from prying eyes, so they have the effect of being a black box. They have three things in common: opacity, scale, and damage. Weapons of math destruction, which O’Neil refers to throughout the book as WMDs, are mathematical models or algorithms that claim to quantify important traits: teacher quality, recidivism risk, creditworthiness but have harmful outcomes and often reinforce inequality, keeping the poor poor and the rich rich. They come from the last chapter of a book in which she has illustrated again and again how, in the words of her subtitle, "big data increases inequality and threatens democracy." With Facebook's new trending topics algorithm and data-driven policing in the news, the book is certainly timely. ![]() It’s only the will we’re lacking.” These sentences from Cathy O’Neil’s new book Weapons of Math Destruction have been haunting me since I read it. ![]()
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