Home / Quotes / Quote by Cathy O'Neil

Quote by Cathy O'Neil

“Because of my experience in Occupy, instead of asking the question, "Who will benefit from this system I'm implementing with the data?" I started to ask the question, "What will happen to the most vulnerable?" Or "Who is going to lose under this system? How will this affect the worst-off person?" Which is a very different question from "How does this improve certain people's lives?"”

Quote by Cathy O'Neil

Author

Cathy O'Neil is an expert in data science and statistics, with a focus on data analysis and machine learning. Her work centers on ethical and fairness issues within these fields. more

You May Also Like

“Obviously the more transparency we have as auditors, the more we can get, but the main goal is to understand important characteristics about a black box algorithm without necessarily having to understand every single granular detail of the algorithm.”

Important Goal Black Details Boxes Characteristics Transparency Algorithms Auditors Black Boxes

Author:Cathy O'Neil

“With recidivism algorithms, for example, I worry about racist outcomes. With personality tests [for hiring], I worry about filtering out people with mental health problems from jobs. And with a teacher value-added model algorithm [used in New York City to score teachers], I worry literally that it's not meaningful. That it's almost a random number generator.”

“There are lots of different ways that algorithms can go wrong, and what we have now is a system in which we assume because it's shiny new technology with a mathematical aura that it's perfect and it doesn't require further vetting. Of course, we never have that assumption with other kinds of technology.”

Way Kind Different Courses Perfect Technology Assuming Mathematical Different Ways Assumption New Technology Auras Algorithms

Author:Cathy O'Neil

“We don't let a car company just throw out a car and start driving it around without checking that the wheels are fastened on. We know that would result in death; but for some reason we have no hesitation at throwing out some algorithms untested and unmonitored even when they're making very important life-and-death decisions.”

Knows Important Reason Decision Results Company Car Driving Wheels Life And Death Throwing Hesitation Algorithms Important Life

Author:Cathy O'Neil

“I set up a company, an algorithmic auditing company myself. I have no clients.”

Company Clients

Author:Cathy O'Neil

“My fantasy is that there is a new regulatory body that is in charge of algorithmic auditing.”

Author:Cathy O'Neil

“I didn't try and do fashion pictures. I tried to do portraits of girls wearing dresses.”

Trying Girl Fashion Dresses Portraits Wearing A Dress

Author:David Bailey

“Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.”

“The Facebook algorithm designers chose to let us see what our friends are talking about. They chose to show us, in some sense, more of the same. And that is the design decision that they could have decided differently. They could have said, "We're going to show you stuff that you've probably never seen before." I think they probably optimized their algorithm to make the most amount of money, and that probably meant showing people stuff that they already sort of agreed with, or were more likely to agree with.”

People Thinking Said Shows Stuff Decision Talking Design Amount Decided Agree Designer Algorithms

Author:Cathy O'Neil

“Micro-targeting is the ability for a campaign to profile you, to know much more about you than you know about it, and then to choose exactly what to show you.”

Knows Shows Ability Campaigns Profile

Author:Cathy O'Neil