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 is currently a columnist for Bloomberg View.
“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.”—The New York Times Book Review
"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
“This is a manual for the twenty-first century citizen, and it
succeeds where other big data accounts have failed—it is
accessible, refreshingly critical and feels relevant and
urgent.”—Financial Times
"Insightful and disturbing."—New York Review of Books
“Weapons of Math Destruction is an urgent critique of . . . the
rampant misuse of math in nearly every aspect of our lives.”—Boston
Globe
“A fascinating and deeply disturbing book.”—Yuval Noah Harari,
author of Sapiens
“Illuminating . . . [O’Neil] makes a convincing case that this
reliance on algorithms has gone too far.”—The Atlantic
“A nuanced reminder that big data is only as good as the people
wielding it.”—Wired
“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
“O’Neil is an ideal person to write this book. She is an academic
mathematician turned Wall Street quant turned data scientist who
has been involved in Occupy Wall Street and recently started
an algorithmic auditing company. She is one of the strongest voices
speaking out for limiting the ways we allow algorithms to influence
our lives. . . . 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
“Indispensable . . . Despite the technical complexity of its
subject, Weapons of Math Destruction lucidly guides readers through
these complex modeling systems. . . . O’Neil’s book is an excellent
primer on the ethical and moral risks of Big Data and an
algorithmically dependent world. . . . For those curious about how
Big Data can help them and their businesses, or how it has been
reshaping the world around them, Weapons of Math Destruction is an
essential starting place.”—National Post
“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, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, author of How Not To Be Wrong
“O’Neil has become [a whistle-blower] for the world of Big Data . .
. [in] her important new book. . . . Her work makes
particularly disturbing points about how being on the wrong side of
an algorithmic decision can snowball in incredibly destructive
ways.”—Time
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