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Weapons of Math Destruction

1. How are models used in business and what statistics are used as a model?

Models are used in businesses to define the items or services a company intends to sell, including its target market and any anticipated costs (Verma, 2019). Models can be used in old businesses or in a new business that has just been established. Continuing businesses should always keep on updating their models to ensure an efficient flow of sales and markets (Verma, 2019). Models typically include information such as that of the commodities or service the company intends to sell, target markets, and any cost base (Verma, 2019).

2. Think about college rankings and getting credit; what factors would you include in an algorithm to avoid it being a WMD?

To avoid an algorithm being a WMD, one should consider some factors like; accuracy, number of features, and speed (Verma, 2019). The algorithm should always be accurate to give a true prediction of the output. A certain algorithm may contain a large number of features but some of the features might not be significant (Verma, 2019).  It is only those features that are significant in an algorithm that should be considered. Algorithms require time to train and therefore the speed of training should also be put into consideration (Verma, 2019).

3. Why does the author state that more data is not always better data or that it does not make the algorithm better?

More data cannot make an algorithm better because it is only a portion of the data is valid and the rest is of no significance. Having too much data also leads to the natural noise of data. More data increase the reliability of your model, but there reaches a point where even adding unlimited amounts of data will not improve the reliability any further.

4. Chapter 6 introduces the idea of using WMD for good instead of being them to discriminate against certain populations by using them to identify areas of need and offer help to those populations. Think about the various WMDs discussed in the book so far. How would you transform them into an effort for good?

Some of the WMDs discussed in the book are; mathematical models and that claim to satisfy certain traits (Woodson, 2018).  These models will always suppress the poor and benefit those who are rich. We would transform these weapons of math destruction by formulating them in a way that will treat everyone with equity (Woodson, 2018).

5. What is Simpson’s paradox? In what other areas of life might we see Simpson’s paradox?

It  is an occurrence in probability and statistics, where a trend sometimes emerges in distinct groups of data but vanishes or reverses when the groups are merged (Li, 2021). This phenomenon was described by Edward H. Simpson where he first described it in a technical paper (Li, 2021). The Simpson’s paradox is also called the Simpson’s reversal or the paradox reversal. We might also see Simpson’s paradox in areas like paying wages (Li, 2021). When wages of different groups are put together, the trend is reversed.

6. Can mathematical models be objective? How would we know?

Mathematical models can be very objective (Woodson, 2018). We can know that the mathematical models are objective if they forecast the future correctly and if they can prevent unwanted trends in the future (Woodson, 2018).  Mathematical models should satisfy those two objectives.

References

Li, X. (2021). Solving paradox by reducing expectation. Academy of Management Review, 46(2), 406-408. https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amr.2020.0005

Verma, S. (2019). Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy. Vikalpa, 44(2), 97-98. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0256090919853933

Woodson, T. (2018). Weapons of math destruction. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23299460.2018.1495027