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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2015, @12:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 28 2015, @12:08AM (#214608)

    First, I'm in total agreement that GP should feel ashamed about what they've done.

    GP here. I moved to a country in the developing world where at a full-time job I make about $800 a month. That's a middle-class life here, and with this money I am supposed to support my wife and children. The lowest that the student loan authority was willing to lower my monthly payments to was $500/month, in spite of repeated pleading that I wished to honor my obligations, but I could only do so with the means I had. No, sorry, I'm not going to feel ashamed. Would you choose a gigantic, impersonal bank over your family in such a case?