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.
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 "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 "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 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 "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; The Guardian's Best Books
of 2016 "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 "Readable and engaging... succinct and
cogent... Weapons of Math Destruction is The Jungle of our age...
[It] should be required reading for all data scientists and for any
organizational decision-maker convinced that a mathematical model
can replace human judgment."
--Mark Van Hollebeke, Data and Society: Points "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 "O'Neil's work is so important... [her] book is a vital
crash-course in the specialized kind of statistical knowledge we
all need to interrogate the systems around us and demand
better."
--Boing Boing "Cathy O'Neil, a number theorist turned data
scientist, delivers a simple but important message: Statistical
models are everywhere, and they exert increasing power over many
aspects of our daily lives... Weapons of Math Destruction provides
a handy map to a few of the many areas of our lives over which
invisible algorithms have gained some control. As the empire of big
data continues to expand, Cathy O'Neil's reminder of the need for
vigilance is welcome and necessary."
--American Prospect "An avowed math nerd, O'Neil has written an
engaging description of the effect of crunched data on our
lives."
--Hicklebee's, San Francisco Chronicle "By tracking how algorithms
shape people's lives at every stage, O'Neil makes a compelling case
that our bot overlords are using data to discriminate unfairly and
foreclose democratic choices. If you work with data, or just
produce reams of it online, this is a must-read."
--ArsTechnica "Lucid, alarming, and valuable... [O'Neil's] writing
is crisp and precise as she aims her arguments to a lay audience.
This makes for a remarkably page-turning read for a book about
algorithms. Weapons of Math Destruction should be required reading
for anybody whose life will be affected by Big Data, which is to
say: required reading for everyone. It's a wake-up call - a
journalistic heir to The Jungle and Silent Spring. Like those
books, it should change the course of American society."
--Aspen Times "[O'Neil's] propulsive study reveals many models that
are currently 'micromanaging' the US economy as opaque and riddled
with bias."
--Nature "You don't need to be a nerd to appreciate the
significance of [O'Neil's] message... Weapons is a must-read for
anyone who is working to combat economic and racial
discrimination."
--Goop "Cathy O'Neil's book... is important and covers issues
everyone should care about. Bonus points: it's accessible,
compelling, and--something I wasn't expecting--really fun to
read."
--Inside Higher Ed "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."
--The Guardian
"O'Neil is passionate about exposing the harmful effects of Big
Data-driven mathematical models (what she calls WMDs), and she's
uniquely qualified for the task... [She] makes a convincing case
that many mathematical models today are engineered to benefit the
powerful at the expense of the powerless... [and] has written an
entertaining and timely book that gives readers the tools to cut
through the ideological fog obscuring the dangers of the Big Data
revolution."
--In These Times "In this simultaneously illuminating and
disturbing account, [O'Neil] describes the many ways in which
widely used mathematic models--based on 'prejudice,
misunderstanding, and bias'--tend to punish the poor and reward the
rich... She convincingly argues for both more responsible modeling
and federal regulation. An unusually lucid and readable look at the
daunting algorithms that govern so many aspects of our lives."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred) "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
humor 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 "This
taut and accessible volume, the stuff of technophobes' nightmares,
explores the myriad ways in which largescale data modeling has made
the world a less just and equal place. O'Neil speaks from a place
of authority on the subject... Unlike some other recent books on
data collection, hers is not hysterical; she offers more of a
chilly wake-up call as she walks readers through the ways the 'big
data' industry has facilitated social ills such as skyrocketing
college tuitions, policing based on racial profiling, and high
unemployment rates in vulnerable communities... eerily
prescient."
--Publishers Weekly "Well-written, entertaining and very
valuable."
--Times Higher Education "Not math heavy, but written in an
exceedingly accessible, almost literary style; [O'Neil's]
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 "Through harrowing real-world examples and lively
story-telling, Weapons of Math Destruction shines invaluable light
on the invisible algorithms and complex mathematical models used by
government and big business to undermine equality and increase
private power. Combating secrecy with clarity and confusion with
understanding, this book can help us change course before it's too
late."
--Astra Taylor, author of The People's Platform: Taking Back Power
and Culture in the Digital Age
"Weapons of Math Destruction is a fantastic, plainspoken call to
arms. It acknowledges that models aren't going away: As a tool for
identifying people in difficulty, they are amazing. But as a tool
for punishing and disenfranchising, they're a nightmare."
--Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and co-editor of Boing
Boing "Many algorithms are slaves to the inequalities of power and
prejudice. If you don't want these algorithms to become your
masters, read Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil to
deconstruct the latest growing tyranny of an arrogant
establishment."
--Ralph Nader, author of Unsafe at Any Speed "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
"From getting a job to finding a spouse, predictive algorithms are
silently shaping and controlling our destinies. Cathy O'Neil takes
us on a journey of outrage and wonder, with prose that makes you
feel like it's just a conversation. But it's an important one. We
need to reckon with technology."
--Linda Tirado, author of Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap
America
"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
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