This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Weapons of Math Destruction" by Cathy O'Neil. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What’s the definition of mathematical models? Are math models biased toward a specific group of people?
In Weapons of Math Destruction, data scientist Cathy O’Neil details the insidious ways mathematical models are being used to determine everything from interest rates to prison sentences. She contends that, while mathematical models can efficiently sort through vast amounts of information, they can produce dangerous results.
Let’s take a look at O’Neil’s definition of a mathematical model.
Explaining Mathematical Models
According to O’Neil, this is the definition of mathematical models: mathematical simulations of a real-world event. Organizations use mathematical models to make predictions and decisions more efficiently than they would otherwise be able to when handling large amounts of data.
For example, suppose you recently adopted 100 cats, which you allow to freely roam your 100-acre property. To figure out where and when to leave food for the cats, you equip 20 of them with GPS collars to track their movements throughout the day. Based on the data from the collars, you estimate where the best places to leave food are—you’ve used data to create a simple mathematical model that simulates the movement of your cats without having to track all 100 cats.
(Shortform note: Mathematical models fall within the field of data science, which involves analyzing data, identifying patterns, and making predictions. Organizations increasingly rely on mathematical models with the explosive growth of big data—vast amounts of information that organizations collect from sources like social networks, electronic check-ins, and internet searches. Companies use this information to determine things like your spending habits and consumer preferences, which they then use in various ways such as targeting you with relevant ads.)
O’Neil argues that mathematical models are inherently reductive. Real-world events and people are immensely complex, and it’s impossible to input every factor that influences them into an equation. Lacking all the information necessary to simulate an event flawlessly, mathematical models inevitably produce a few mistakes. Organizations that use mathematical models are aware of these limitations, but they nonetheless use mathematical models because they’re willing to accept the trade-off between accuracy and efficiency.
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Here's what you'll find in our full Weapons of Math Destruction summary:
- The insidious ways mathematical models are being used in society
- How mathematical models are being used to reinforce bias and harm the poor
- Recommendations for how to rein in dangerous mathematical models
