Cathy O'Neil is a data scientist and author of the blog mathbabe.org. She earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard and taught at Barnard College before moving to the private sector, where she worked for the hedge fund D. E. Shaw. She then worked as a data scientist at various start-ups, building models that predict people's purchases and clicks. O'Neil started the Lede Program in Data Journalism at Columbia and is the author of Doing Data Science. She appears weekly on the Slate Money podcast.
This is a manual for the 21st-century citizen, and it succeeds
where other big data accounts have failed - it is accessible,
refreshingly critical and feels relevant and urgent
*Financial Times*
Fascinating and deeply disturbing
*Guardian Books of the Year*
O'Neil's book offers a frightening look at how algorithms are
increasingly regulating people... Her knowledge of the power and
risks of mathematical models, coupled with a gift for analogy,
makes her one of the most valuable observers of the continuing
weaponization of big data... She does a masterly job explaining the
pervasiveness and risks of the algorithms that regulate our
lives
*New York Times Book Review*
Well-written, entertaining and very valuable
*Times Higher Education*
O'Neil has become a whistle-blower for the world of Big Data... Her
work makes particularly disturbing points about how being on the
wrong side of an algorithmic decision can snowball in incredibly
destructive ways
*Time*
Often we don't even know where to look for those important
algorithms, because by definition the most dangerous ones are also
the most secretive. That's why the catalogue of case studies in
O'Neil's book are so important; she's telling us where to look
*Guardian*
In today's world, if you want to change your fate you've got to
pray at the altar of the algorithm... As math guru Cathy O'Neil
argues in her newest book, these models are just the latest way
America's institutions perpetuate bias and prejudice to reward the
rich and keep the poor, well, poor. It's a nuanced reminder that
big data is only as good as the people wielding it
*Wired, Required Science Reading from 2016*
Not math heavy, but written in an exceedingly accessible, almost
literary style; her fascinating case studies of WMDs fit neatly
into the genre of dystopian literature. There's a little Philip K.
Dick, a little Orwell, a little Kafka in her portrait of powerful
bureaucracies ceding control of the most intimate decisions of our
lives to hyper-empowered computer models riddled with all of our
unresolved, atavistic human biases
*Paris Review*
Cathy O'Neil has seen Big Data from the inside, and the picture
isn't pretty. Weapons of Math Destruction opens the curtain on
algorithms that exploit people and distort the truth while posing
as neutral mathematical tools. This book is wise, fierce, and
desperately necessary
*Jordan Ellenberg, author of How Not To Be Wrong*
Even as a professional mathematician, I had no idea how insidious
Big Data could be until I read Weapons of Math Destruction. Though
terrifying, it's a surprisingly fun read: O'Neil's vision of a
world run by algorithms is laced with dark humour and exasperation
- like a modern-day Dr Strangelove or Catch-22. It is eye-opening,
disturbing, and deeply important
*Steven Strogatz, Cornell University, author of The Joy of x*
Weapons of Math Destruction is a fantastic, plainspoken call to
arms. Cathy O'Neil's book is important precisely because she
believes in data science. It's a vital crash course in why we must
interrogate the systems around us and demand better
*Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and co-editor of Boing
Boing*
In this fascinating account, Cathy O'Neil leverages her expertise
in mathematics and her passion for social justice to poke holes in
the triumphant narrative of Big Data. She makes a compelling case
that math is being used to squeeze marginalized segments of society
and magnify inequities. Her analysis is superb, her writing is
enticing, and her findings are unsettling
*danah boyd, founder of Data & Society and author of It’s
Complicated*
Next time you hear someone gushing uncritically about the wonders
of Big Data, show them Weapons of Math Destruction. It'll be
salutary
*Felix Salmon, Fusion*
Weapons of Math Destruction is the Big Data story Silicon Valley
proponents won't tell... [It] pithily exposes flaws in how
information is used to assess everything from creditworthiness to
policing tactics... A thought-provoking read for anyone inclined to
believe that data doesn't lie
*Reuters*
O'Neil is an ideal person to write this book... She is one of the
strongest voices speaking out for limiting the ways we allow
algorithms to influence our lives and against the notion that an
algorithm, because it is implemented by an unemotional machine,
cannot perpetrate bias or injustice... While Weapons of Math
Destruction is full of hard truths and grim statistics, it is also
accessible and even entertaining. O'Neil's writing is direct and
easy to read - I devoured it in an afternoon
*Scientific American*
If you've ever suspected there was something baleful about our deep
trust in data, but lacked the mathematical skills to figure out
exactly what it was, this is the book for you
*Salon*
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