Weapons of Math Destruction. How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy: Cathy O`Neil

In this New York Times bestseller, Cathy O`Neil, one of the first champions of algorithmic accountability, sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life - and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.

We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives - where we go to school, whether we get a loan, how much we pay for insurance - are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated.

And yet, as Cathy O`Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and incontestable, even when they`re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination. Tracing the arc of a person`s life, O`Neil exposes the black box models that shape our future, both as individuals and as a society. These "weapons of math destruction" score teachers and students, sort CVs, grant or deny loans, evaluate workers, target voters, and monitor our health.

O`Neil calls on modellers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and on policy makers to regulate their use. But in the end, it`s up to us to become more savvy about the models that govern our lives. This important book empowers us to ask the tough questions, uncover the truth, and demand change.