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

作者：CathyO’Neil

出版社：Crown

副标题：HowBigDataIncreasesInequalityandThreatensDemocracy

出版年：2016-9-6

页数：272

定价：USD26.00

装帧：Hardcover

ISBN：9780553418811

内容简介
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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.

作者简介
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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.

目录
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本书所获赞誉

前言

第一章 盲点炸弹 不透明、规模化和毁灭性

第二章 操纵与恐吓 弹震症患者的醒悟

第三章 恶意循环 排名模型的特权与焦虑

第四章 数据经济 掠夺式广告的赢家

第五章 效率权衡与逻辑漏洞 大数据时代的正义

第六章 筛选 颅相学的偏见强化

第七章 反馈 辛普森悖论的噪声

第八章 替代变量和间接损害 信用数据的陷阱

第九章 “一般人”公式 沉溺与歧视

第十章 正面的力量 微目标的出发点

结论

致谢

评论 ······

大数据模型在参数选择上的任意，数据统计上的不科学，模型适用的不科学推广，导致大数据模型在招生就业犯罪和选举问题上的不公正和不平等。虽然都是举例，但介绍了数据对人生活加以掌控的方方面面。

迷信大数据的时代，需要好好读一下这本书

看起来还是挺轻松的 算是算法偏见的入门读物 还不错

可能之前期待值太高 所以落差比较大.. 对fairness and accountability in ml比较陌生的人还是很推荐的。 读起来觉得大妈强项的数学模型方面可能考虑非technical读者粗略带过不过瘾, 不是专项的policy方面argument又比较sloppy…

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