Beware Bad Models! Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil Reviewed
Channel: Random Talkers
Date: 2018-04-09

This week we review "Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy" by Cathy O'Neil. From terrible teacher evaluations to dodgy credit decisions, algorithms make plenty of mistakes - but are they really worse than the alternative? Timestamps:
0:23 - Three traits of a bad model
1:48 - Terrible teacher evaluations
6:50 - Personality tests and hiring
11:50 - Bad algorithms disproportionately hurt the poor
15:45 - Clopening and schedule optimization
18:19 - Life before algorithms: redlining
25:11 - Limits to model accuracy
26:21 - The rigor of sports analytics is not a panacea
28:07 - Predictions vs. privacy
32:37 - The stop and frisk analogy
35:35 - China's social credit system and research ethics

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