Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy Audiobook (Free)

Longlisted for the Country wide Book Award

New York Moments Bestseller

A former Wall Street quant noises an alarm around the mathematical choices that pervade modern life – and threaten to rip apart our public fabric

We reside in age the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives-where we go to school, whether we get yourself a car loan, how much we purchase health insurance-are becoming made not by human beings, but by numerical models. In theory, this should lead to better fairness: about Weaponry of Math Devastation: WHAT SIZE Data Boosts Inequality and Threatens Democracy Everyone is judged based on the same rules, and bias is normally eliminated.

But as Cathy O’Neil reveals within this urgent and required book, the opposite holds true. The versions being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If an unhealthy student can’t get yourself a loan because a financing model deems him too dangerous (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. Versions are propping in the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a “toxic cocktail for democracy.” Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.

Tracing the arc of the person’s life, O’Neil exposes the black colored box types that shape our future, both as individuals so that as a society. These “weapons of math devastation” score educators and students, type résumés, grant (or deny) loans, evaluate workers, focus on voters, arranged parole, and monitor our health and wellness.

O’Neil phone calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to modify their use. But in the end, it’s up to us to be more savvy about the versions that govern our lives. This important publication empowers us to inquire the tough queries, uncover the truth, and demand switch.

– Longlist for Country wide Book Honor (nonfiction)

– Goodreads, semi-finalist for the 2016 Goodreads Choice Honours (Technology and Technology)

– Kirkus, Ideal Books of 2016

– New York Occasions, 100 Notable Books of 2016 (Non-Fiction)

– The Guardian, Best Books of 2016

– WBUR’s ‘On Stage,’ Best Books of 2016: Staff Picks

– Boston Globe, Ideal Books of 2016, Non-Fiction