Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from January, 2020

Weapons of Math Destruction

A few months back I was introduced to the book, "Weapons of Math Destruction" by Dr. Cathy O'Neil. A mathematician and a former data scientist, she now writes about ethics in the tech industry. I got to see her in Milwaukee as she spoke on a major problem in data science: misguided metrics. Specifically, she discussed metrics that ignore the social implications of harmful models. The highlight of her talk was the "ethical matrix" -- a tool for understanding how an algorithm effects model stakeholders. It teaches data scientist to look beyond the normal metrics of performance (i.e. accuracy), and to apply more focus to other vital characteristics like data quality, perceived fairness, and transparency. Likewise, the ethical matrix not only accounts for the entities looking to use the model. It also takes into consideration those subjected to the model, the designers and sellers of the model, and the public at large. Overall, her talk was quite inspiring, and of