Nowadays we see a trend of algorithms taking over decisions: Am I eligible for a loan? Do I get a raise? Or even in the case of getting arrested, these algorithms may decide on your fate. Who checks these algorithms and if they are deciding the right thing? What data biases are there and how does this affect people?
Mathematician Cathy O’Neil wrote a book called ‘Weapons Of Math Destruction’ and thinks we need to stop just blindly trusting algorithms. We should make it real data science, so when a claim is made there has to be evidence to back it up. We need to open them up, regulate them and challenge them in order to prevent algorithms to fail and prevent them from doing any harm to people. Cathy is currently busy with her auditing company that audits algorithms. She is fighting a tough battle!
Cathy also gave an incredible talk at TED about Big Data:
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