E6: Cathy O'Neil: Weapons of Math Destruction

We sat with Dr. O'Neil to discuss her book, Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data increases inequality and threatens democracy. Dr. O’Neil has a PhD in math from Harvard, and a posdoc from MIT. She is a seasoned columnist for Bloomberg view, and her blog https://mathbabe.org/.

The book was quite insightful. It gives us a raw perspective on the effects of the algorithms often used as decision making engines by both private and public institutions.

From crime prediction software, to college rankings, predatory advertising, criminal justice procedures, and even candidate screenings; these algorithms operate on the background behind a curtain of anonymity, and safeguarded as proprietary models only accessible to those who capitalize on them, with little to no accountability ...