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posted by janrinok on Monday July 27 2015, @06:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-bit-of-a-gamble? dept.

Computers aren't just doing hard math problems and showing us cat videos. Increasingly, they judge our character. Maybe we should be grateful.

A company in Palo Alto, Calif., called Upstart has over the last 15 months lent $135 million to people with mostly negligible credit ratings. Typically, they are recent graduates without mortgages, car payments or credit card settlements.

Those are among the things that normally earn a good or bad credit score, but these people haven't been in the working world that long. So Upstart looks at their SAT scores, what colleges they attended, their majors and their grade-point averages. As much as job prospects, the company is assessing personality.

The idea, validated by data, is that people who did things like double-checking the homework or studying extra in case there was a pop quiz are thorough and likely to honor their debts.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/using-algorithms-to-determine-character/

[Other Companies Involved With Similar Programs]: ZestFinance , Workday


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @08:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @08:49PM (#214525)

    Indeed. It has nothing to do with personal responsibility and integrity. They FORCED you to be this way. You're ENTITLED to anything you want, and who are they to say you can't get what you want? Your momma always did say you were special.

    This moral morass can be hard to capture in an algorithm. My first cut at it would make character inversely proportional to the number of participation trophies earned as well as the number of times a parent called a teacher to have a grade changed (or if the teacher was a college prof, then one over the square). You learn responsibility by being put in a position of responsibility. You work a job. You have to show up every day on time. You learn the value of something by earning it. These are things that are lost on many people today.

    You should be forgiven your credit card debt because of the evil banks, you should be able to pirate software because of the evil software companies, you should be able to freely download music and movies because of the evil record and movie companies. The most important thing to remember is that IT IS NEVER YOUR FAULT.

    As I said, perhaps writing off the credit loss is a reasonable trade-off for strengthening the social fabric by having these people willingly leave the country. Strong societies are built on the backs of strong contributors, not from the leeches and dead weight.

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