Weapons of Math Destruction

We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives—where we go to school, whether we can get a job or a loan, how much we pay for health insurance—are being made not by humans, but by machines. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules. But as mathematician and data scientist Cathy O’Neil reveals, the mathematical models being used today are unregulated and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination—propping up the lucky, punishing the downtrodden, and undermining our democracy in the process. Welcome to the dark side of Big Data. PRAISE A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2016 A Boston Globe Best Book of 2016 One of Wired‘s Required Reading Picks of 2016 One of Fortune‘s Favorite Books of 2016 A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2016 A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2016 A Nature.com Best Book of 2016 An On Point Best Book of 2016 New York Times Editor’s Choice A Maclean‘s Bestseller Winner of the 2016 SLA-NY PrivCo Spotlight Award