Question

Please type down (easy to copy and paste) your response (agree or disagree why?) 150 word +

In this ted talk video, “The era of blind faith in big data must end”, Cathy O`Neil discusses about algorithms and how they do not make things fair at all. Cathy O`Neil is a Mathematician and a data scientist that also talks about the big data, and showing how algorithms could in fact reinforce human bias. In the beginning of this video, she talks about all of the bad data science things. At the end, Cathy O`Neil talks about the good data science and talks about the features of a good data science. You can find so many bad and good examples of everything. What really matter is the big picture of the good and bad things. I agree that big data has many drawbacks but all the examples and the “thought experiments” were either gender or race based (O`Neil, 2017).

Algorithms can be very useful in different aspect. Algorithms are useful by giving people an idea of how to reach a particular goal. For an example, algorithms would not function without online dating and book recommendation or even travel websites. Algorithms are most invisibly aids, augmenting human lives in incredible ways. There is so much science that is so good out there that we don't even realize it. In general, to use science and data science usefully we all need to have a better understanding of it.

Answer 1

It has been truly said by O'Neil that Algorithms are just opinions that are coded and have been masked as maths in the course of establishing that it is authentic and must be trusted. However calculated Algorithms may be, they are the calculations, outlook, and opinion of a certain few. They are all set up by a handful to draw gains from the society the way they want without letting the people see the whole picture. The way Big Data is being used has a greater political motive behind. As O'Neil said that an Algorithm is made up of two things i.e., The Data (everything that happened in the past including the statistics) and The Definition of Success. The Data that is being talked about can be anything from the history, but it very importantly counts on how a few people who handle the Algorithm see it. It depends on how much of the data the let out to the people and how much of it do they hide. The Definition of Success arises from the same categorized data and how the people in power wish to define it for people.

It is true that it does not necessarily have to be a bad and political motive to create a faulty and unfair Algorithm. Sometimes, the creation of an unbiased algorithm for a good purpose can act unfairly. This is based on the Data History and the Definition of Success that we choose. Even if we just enable the Algorithm with the required criteria, it may end up showing results that are biased as it may not have a data history of equality and success terms based on the situation of various groups in the history.

Big Data can be really beneficial for human beings but it should not be believed upon blindly. It should be interrogated constantly and the bigger picture with all the information should be available to the masses. The Definition of Success should be constantly kept in check as to not make any biased and stereotypical decisions that could again create biases amongst people and divide the society.