Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
"Weapons of Math Destruction" by Cathy O'Neil explores the detrimental impact of big data and algorithms on society. O'Neil delves into how these mathematical models can lead to discrimination, perpetuate inequality, and harm specific segments of the population. Through various examples, she highlights how these models can be biased, opaque, and create feedback loops that reinforce stereotypes. covers a wide range of topics, including employment, advertising, political engagement, and consumer credit, showcasing how these mathematical systems can have far-reaching consequences on people's lives.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings might include discussions of systemic inequality, discrimination, and the impacts of algorithms on marginalized communities.
From The Publisher:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A former Wall Street quant sounds the alarm on Big Data and the mathematical models that threaten to rip apart our social fabric-with a new afterword
"A manual for the twenty-first-century citizen . . . relevant and urgent."-Financial Times
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review
The Boston Globe
Wired
Fortune
Kirkus Reviews
The Guardian
Nature
On Point
We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives-where we go to school, whether we can get a job or a loan, how much we pay for health insurance-are being made not by humans, but by machines. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules.
But as mathematician and data scientist Cathy O'Neil reveals, the mathematical models being used today are unregulated and uncontestable, even when they're wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination-propping up the lucky, punishing the downtrodden, and undermining our democracy in the process. Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.
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About the Author:
Cathy O'Neil is the author of the bestselling Weapons of Math Destruction, which won the Euler Prize and was longlisted for the National Book Award. She received her PhD in mathematics from Harvard and has worked in finance, tech, and…
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