Weapons of Math Destruction Free PDF Download

We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives -- where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health 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. But as Cathy ONeil reveals in this book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when theyre wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If a poor student cant get a loan because a lending model deems him too risky (by virtue of his zip code), hes then cut off from the kind of education that could pull him out of poverty, and a vicious spiral ensues. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a toxic cocktail for democracy. Welcome to the dark side of Big Data. Tracing the arc of a persons life, ONeil 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 résumés, grant (or deny) loans, evaluate workers, target voters, set parole, and monitor our health. ONeil calls on modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, its up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives.