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

O'Neil, Cathy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241296811 ISBN 13: 9780241296813

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2016

Synopsis

New York Times Bestseller

'Fascinating and deeply disturbing' - Yuval Noah Harari, Guardian Books of the Year

'A manual for the 21st-century citizen... accessible, refreshingly critical, relevant and urgent' - Federica Cocco, Financial Times

A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life - and threaten to rip apart our social fabric

We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives - where we go to school, whether we get a loan, how much we pay for 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.

And yet, as Cathy O'Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and incontestable, even when they're wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination. Tracing the arc of a person's life, O'Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. These "weapons of math destruction" score teachers and students, sort CVs, grant or deny loans, evaluate workers, target voters, and monitor our health.

O'Neil calls on modellers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. 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.

About this title

Review:

This is a manual for the 21st-century citizen, and it succeeds where other big data accounts have failed - it is accessible, refreshingly critical and feels relevant and urgent (Federica Cocco Financial Times)

Fascinating and deeply disturbing (Yuval Noah Harari Guardian Books of the Year)

O'Neil's book offers a frightening look at how algorithms are increasingly regulating people... Her knowledge of the power and risks of mathematical models, coupled with a gift for analogy, makes her one of the most valuable observers of the continuing weaponization of big data... She does a masterly job explaining the pervasiveness and risks of the algorithms that regulate our lives (New York Times Book Review)

Well-written, entertaining and very valuable (Danny Dorling Times Higher Education)

O'Neil has become a whistle-blower for the world of Big Data... Her work makes particularly disturbing points about how being on the wrong side of an algorithmic decision can snowball in incredibly destructive ways (Time)

Often we don't even know where to look for those important algorithms, because by definition the most dangerous ones are also the most secretive. That's why the catalogue of case studies in O'Neil's book are so important; she's telling us where to look (Guardian)

In today's world, if you want to change your fate you've got to pray at the altar of the algorithm... As math guru Cathy O'Neil argues in her newest book, these models are just the latest way America's institutions perpetuate bias and prejudice to reward the rich and keep the poor, well, poor. It's a nuanced reminder that big data is only as good as the people wielding it (Wired, Required Science Reading from 2016)

Not math heavy, but written in an exceedingly accessible, almost literary style; her fascinating case studies of WMDs fit neatly into the genre of dystopian literature. There's a little Philip K. Dick, a little Orwell, a little Kafka in her portrait of powerful bureaucracies ceding control of the most intimate decisions of our lives to hyper-empowered computer models riddled with all of our unresolved, atavistic human biases (Chris Jackson Paris Review)

Cathy O'Neil has seen Big Data from the inside, and the picture isn't pretty. Weapons of Math Destruction opens the curtain on algorithms that exploit people and distort the truth while posing as neutral mathematical tools. This book is wise, fierce, and desperately necessary (Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not To Be Wrong)

Even as a professional mathematician, I had no idea how insidious Big Data could be until I read Weapons of Math Destruction. Though terrifying, it's a surprisingly fun read: O'Neil's vision of a world run by algorithms is laced with dark humour and exasperation - like a modern-day Dr Strangelove or Catch-22. It is eye-opening, disturbing, and deeply important (Steven Strogatz, Cornell University, author of The Joy of x)

From the Back Cover:

'A manual for the 21st-century citizen ... accessible, refreshingly critical, relevant and urgent' Federica Cocco, Financial Times

'O'Neil's book offers a frightening look at how algorithms are increasingly regulating people ... masterly' Clay Shirky, The New York Times Book Review

'Opens the curtain on algorithms that exploit people and distort the truth while posing as neutral mathematical tools. This book is wise, fierce, and desperately necessary' Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not to Be Wrong

'A vital crash course in why we must interrogate the systems around us and demand better' Cory Doctorow

'Cathy O'Neil has a story to tell, and it is a story about you ... what she reveals is fascinating' Danny Dorling, Times Higher Education

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0241296811
• ISBN 13: 9780241296813
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272