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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard about a story that appeared on CNN on September 9, 2016.
From targeted advertising and insurance to education and policing, Cathy O'Neil's new book 'Weapons of Math Destruction' [WMD] looks at how algorithms and big data are targeting the poor, reinforcing racism and amplifying inequality.
[...] In a vacuum, these models are bad enough, but O'Neil emphasizes, "they're feeding on each other." Education, job prospects, debt and incarceration are all connected, and the way big data is used makes them more inclined to stay that way.
"Poor people are more likely to have bad credit and live in high-crime neighborhoods, surrounded by other poor people," she writes. "Once ... WMDs digest that data, it showers them with subprime loans or for-profit schools. It sends more police to arrest them and when they're convicted it sentences them to longer terms."
In turn, a new set of WMDs uses this data to charge higher rates for mortgages, loans and insurance.
[...] "Big Data processes codify the past," O'Neil writes. "They do not invent the future. Doing that requires moral imagination, and that's something only humans can provide."
I'm not interested in the story. I'm interested in what it says about once proud CNN's current quality of journalism. Fox News: Left Division?
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/06/technology/weapons-of-math-destruction/
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 03 2016, @10:40AM
Then you missed the whole point of it being submitted. It wasn't to talk about the subject, which is laughable, but the quality of journalism that lead to it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 03 2016, @01:32PM
That is the point of the complaint. Its just another buzzardshit post, purely ideological with the transparent facade of impartiality.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 03 2016, @03:04PM
Impartiality? I seriously doubt I've ever claimed that as my modus operandi. We're not a news site, we're a news discussion site. And unless I'm talking about official site policy, my views are my own. The only time I'm impartial is when I'm doing admin duties because nobody else is handy to cover them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday October 03 2016, @01:55PM
If you don't want to actually talk about the article itself, just wait for the next submission that everybody doesn't like. Don't submit another one that everybody doesn't like.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 03 2016, @02:58PM
Why not? We do enjoy a good trashing of crappy articles round these parts.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday October 03 2016, @03:26PM
Speak for yourself. "We" sounds doubtful.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 03 2016, @08:59PM
I'll speak to the numbers if it's all the same to you. Obviously crap articles get nearly as many comments as the ones on highly controversial topics.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.