A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis … ISBN-10: 0141985410 Her acclaimed book Weapons of Math Destruction details how opaque, black-box algorithms rely on biased historical data to do everything from sentence defendants to hire workers. To illustrate this, she discusses the educational reforms in Washington, DC, under Michelle Rhee, whose teacher evaluation system IMPACT was meant to identify the lowest-performing teachers in the school district using math. Excerpts So to sum up, these are the three elements of a WMD [Weapons of Math Destruction]: Opacity, Scale, and Damage. ©2021 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Weapons of Math Destruction should be required reading for anybody whose life will be affected by Big Data, which is to say: required reading for everyone. Weapons of Math O’Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. It’s a wake-up call – a journalistic heir to The Jungle and Silent Spring . ISBN: 9780141985411. After the housing crisis and economic downturn of 2008, however, O’Neil recognized that mathematical equations were not infallible in measuring human behavior. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy By Cathy O’Neil 259 pp. It’ll be salutary.” —Felix Salmon, Fusion “From getting a job to finding a spouse, predictive algorithms are silently shaping and controlling our destinies. All of them will be present, to one degree or another, in the examples we’ll be covering. Algorithms decide who gets a loan, who gets a job interview, who gets insurance and much more -- but they don't automatically make things fair. The book received widespread praise for elucidating the consequences of reliance on big data models for structuring socioeconomic resources. Even still, O’Neil grew increasingly uncomfortable with the way numbers were being used to manipulate, quantify, and control people—leading her to use her mathematical prowess to lead the charge in investigating Big Data. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a “toxic cocktail for democracy.”. She explains how, after 2010, the public accepted the growing trend of corporations and public services using algorithms to dictate much of their lives. Page 4. Crown, $26. Many WMDs are opaque to the people whose lives they affect, yet they are everywhere: in finance, college admissions, advertising, police departments, the job market, politics, and social media. She cautions, however, that the ubiquity in these algorithms does not mean they are harmless. Finance: O’Neil explains how hedge funds like the one she worked for use math to make money. In the introduction of the book, O’Neil describes her lifelong love for numbers, explaining how this led to a career in the field of mathematics. And it is in this contemporary context that O’Neil has a final plea. Word Count: 1239. They are also scalable, thereby amplifying any inherent biases to affect increasingly larger populations. While the topic has certainly become more mainstream since the publication of “Weapons of Math Destruction” in 2016, there is still a long way to go. Weaving her personal experiences with research, O’Neil traces the development of big data and its far-reaching impacts on the average citizen. In her time working in hedge funds, O’Neil witnessed the havoc that models and algorithms could wreak on the economy during the 2008 financial crisis, not to mention the human suffering this caused. Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil Publisher's summary We live in the age of the algorithm. Cathy O'Neil's book Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and ... data scientist like O'Neil seems well-placed to take a crack at it.. ... Increases Inequality A Crack. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. Cathy O’Neil’s book Weapons of Math Destruction explains plenty of real-world examples of algorithms and the way they have been used in insurance industries to whir away our credit scores. Simply copy it to the References page as is. In “Bomb Parts: What Is a Model?” O’Neil discusses how statistical analysis became integral to the sport of professional baseball. Instead of solving the district’s student achievement problem, the system fired good teachers based on a number that was calculated using undisclosed methods and unreliable data. What is the thesis of the book Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil? Weapons of Math Destruction (2016) offers a critical look at the growing number of algorithms that could be impacting your day-to-day life in ways you’re not even aware of. After leaving Wall Street, O’Neill worked in e-commerce, calculating the likelihood of website visitors to buy products. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives—where we go … Weapons of Math Destruction O’Neil argues that a weapon of math destruction (WMD) is a particular type of algorithm/model which has adverse effects. We’ve discounted annual subscriptions by 50% for COVID-19 relief—Join Now! WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION [PDF] 0 WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION We live in the age of the algorithm. You'll get access to all of the It explores how some big data algorithms are increasingly used in ways that reinforce preexisting inequality. Cathy O’Neil’s nonfiction book Weapons of Math Destruction exposes how data collection is being used to undermine individuals’ right to privacy and the democratic society in which we live. 3 / 6. Because of this, O’Neil asserts that it is dishonest and immoral to keep the details of the model’s creators and purpose from the people whose lives the model will impact. [6], In 2019, the book won the Euler Book Prize of the Mathematical Association of America. O'Neil has invented her own term, Weapons of Math Destruction (WMDs) to lift the veil on a hidden but very active phenomenon that is perpetrating the racial and class biases that are already prevalent. Weapons of Math Destruction is a book about the perils of big data, written by Cathy O’Neil. It explores how some big data algorithms are increasingly used in ways that reinforce preexisting inequality. show them Weapons of Math Destruction. WMDs ignore nuance and often rely on flawed data. Cathy O’Neil takes us on a journey O’Neil’s book offers a … Log in here. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. Mathematician and data scientist Cathy O'Neil coined a term for algorithms that are secret, important and harmful: "weapons of math destruction." Weapons of Math Destruction is a book by Cathy O’Neil that examines the dangers of using “Big Data” to make decisions that can alter the course of people’s lives. Weapons of Math Destruction is a 2016 American book about the societal impact of algorithms, written by Cathy O'Neil. She posits that these problematic mathematical tools share three key features: they are opaque, unregulated, and difficult to contest. Weapons of Math Destruction is a 2016 American book about the societal impact of algorithms, written by Cathy O'Neil. Buy Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy By Cathy O'Neil. In the rest of the chapter, O’Neil explains how models are created with goals and ideology in mind, which means they are just as biased as the people who create them. Cathy O'Neil is a data scientist and author of the blog mathbabe.org. Weapons of Math Destruction content, as well as access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy is published by Penguin. Already a member? and won the Euler Book Prize. How to cite “Weapons of math destruction” by Cathy O'Neil APA citation Formatted according to the APA Publication Manual 7 th edition. Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this Weapons of Math Destruction study guide. Available in used condition with free delivery in the UK. Learn more about the book in this summary here. In the next chapter, “Shell Shocked: My Journey of Disillusionment,” O’Neil goes into detail about how she arrived at her suspicions about Big Data. O’Neil worked as a math professor until 2007 when a lucrative opportunity arose to apply her PhD training in mathematics at a hedge fund. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy is a New York Times Bestseller and is on the National Book Award longlist. But after reading “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy,” by Cathy O’Neil, I can see that there’s … What is the concept of transparency in O'Neils Weapons of Math Destruction? O’Neil discusses recidivism models in prisons as an example of how models can have detrimental consequences, even if they are unintended. Title: Weapons of Math Destruction Author: Cathy O’Neil Category: Non-fiction Rating: 3/5 10-word summary: Algorithms increase inequality, but they can be used for good. Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy - Ebook written by Cathy O'Neil. It was longlisted for the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction, has been widely reviewed, and won the Euler Book Prize. O’Neil concludes that the use of WMDs is biased, careless, and ultimately unethical. Weapons of Math Destruction Summary W eapons of Math Destruction is a book by Cathy O’Neil that examines the dangers of using “Big Data” … Learn more about the hidden agendas behind the formulas. [7], "The National Book Awards Longlist: Nonfiction", "A data scientist reveals how invisible algorithms perpetuate inequality (review of, "Weapons of Math Destruction: invisible, ubiquitous algorithms are ruining millions of lives", "When big data algorithms discriminate (review of, "Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Weapons_of_Math_Destruction&oldid=1000364651, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 14 January 2021, at 20:25. These "weapons of math destruction" score teachers and students, sort résumés, grant (or deny) loans, evaluate workers, target voters, set paroles, and monitor our health. She suggests that baseball’s use of data to analyze players’ performance serves as a contrast to the destructive power of weapons of math destruction (WMDs) because it is transparent. O'Neil, a mathematician, analyses how the use of big data and algorithms in a variety of fields, including insurance, advertising, education, and policing, can lead to decisions that harm the poor, reinforce racism, and amplify inequality. Weapons of Math Destruction is a book about the perils of big data, written by Cathy O’Neil, a mathematician and the author of mathbabe.org.. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of “Weapons of Math Destruction” by Cathy O'Neil. [5] Kirkus Reviews praised the book for being "an unusually lucid and readable" discussion of a technical subject. This section dives into the financial world in search of WMDs (the titular weapons of math destruction), while continuing the book’s autobiographical theme. In the next chapter, “Arms Race: Going to College,” O’Neil explains how US News undertook the task of ranking the nation’s colleges and universities based on a complex system of mathematical... (The entire section contains 1239 words.). Last Updated on August 14, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. O'Neil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. There she saw the use of weapons of math destruction, a term O’Neil uses to describe “algorithms that are important, secret and destructive”. Cathy O’Neil makes this case powerfully in her book Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. “Weapons of Math Destruction” (or WMDs) are Big Data models that use algorithms to make decisions. Summary III Summary III mnn baaa mfj ncel sf am dadq jjg obp afeh acb gc ma sp fg igi kem kdgi … Read chapter one of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil I don't think she's used the specific words in the book yet, but O'Neil is fundamentally writing about social justice and transparency. Clay Shirky from The New York Times Book Review said "O’Neil does a masterly job explaining the pervasiveness and risks of the algorithms that regulate our lives," while pointing out that "the section on solutions is weaker than the illustration of the problem.". According to National Book Foundation:[1], 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 zip code), he’s then cut off from the kind of education that could pull him out of poverty, and a vicious spiral ensues. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. Per O'Neil, WMDs are any In 2017, O’Neil founded consulting firm ORCAA These “weapons of math destruction” score teachers and students, sort résumés, grant (or deny) loans, evaluate workers, target voters, set parole, and monitor our health. 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