Unaudited and unregulated, designed by private companies, details kept secret. Nobody knows how their work, and they assume that because it's math they must believe it.

These algorithms show up when there's a difficult conversation that people want t avoid, like what makes a good teacher.

What they think they want is the source of algorithms decisions. Opinion silos are propaganda machines.

Have a way to journalists to go through all the ads at a given time. Shows what you're showing. We don't know what they are showing, transparency is important

if an algorith fails more for women, then that's a problem (for instance)

a customer service line, your phone number will be analised, and depending on your budget, your waiting time may be longer/shorter

a lot of editorializing here of Cathy O'Neil's words; chopping up her responses to your unstated questions to fit a particular narrative doesn't help.

Computer algorithms now shape our world in profound and mostly invisible ways. They predict if we’ll be valuable customers and whether we’re likely to repay a loan. They filter what we see on social media, sort through resumes, and evaluate job performance. They inform prison sentences and monitor our health. Most of these algorithms have been created with good intentions. The goal is to replace subjective judgments with objective measurements. But it doesn’t always work out like that.
“I don’t think mathematical models are inherently evil — I think it’s the way they’re used that are evil,” says mathematician Cathy O’Neil, author of the book Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. She has studied number theory, worked as a data scientist at start-ups, and built predictive algorithms for various private enterprises. Through her work, she’s become critical about the influence of poorly-designed algorithms.

274- The Age of the Algorithm

A tiny radio show about design, architecture &amp; the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world.

http://99percentinvisible.org/

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On the radio on 91.7 KALW in San Francisco. Fridays at 7:35am and 4:30pm, Saturdays at 8:35am.  And public radio stations across the country.

Created by Roman Mars.


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