Weapons of Math Destruction Terms

A “quant,” or quantitative analyst, is a specialist who uses mathematical and statistical methods to analyze the economy. read analysis of Quant

A hedge fund is a partnership of investors that uses high-risk methods to make a profit. Hedge funds focus on small fluctuations in the economy, train algorithms to predict errors and price swings, and place… read analysis of Hedge Fund

The 2007-2008 financial crisis was a worldwide economic downturn that began in the United States. The crisis stemmed from banks lending subprime mortgages (in other words, lending mortgages to people at a high risk of… read analysis of 2007-2008 Financial Crisis

Big Data, or the so-called “Big Data economy,” is a field that seeks to analyze incredibly large data sets through models and algorithms—some of which O’Neil classifies as “weapons of math destruction” because… read analysis of Big Data

The LSI-R (short for Level of Service Inventory-Revised) is a recidivism model that seeks to determine how likely a criminal is to repeat their offense after being released from prison. These models were built to… read analysis of Recidivism Models/LSI-R

PredPol, short for Predictive Policing, is software pioneered by a California-based start-up that uses historical crime data to show where and when crimes are most likely to occur. PredPol was pioneered to cut down on… read analysis of PredPol

“Stop and frisk” is a New York City Police Department practice of stopping, detaining, questioning, and frisking or searching civilians on the street—especially in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods. In the early 2010s, the NYPD reported stopping… read analysis of Stop and Frisk

FICO scores are the standard credit-scoring system in the United States. The FICO model was created to evaluate the risk of a person defaulting on a loan. And because the model was designed to be… read analysis of FICO Score

E-scores and e-scoring systems aggregate everything from zip codes to internet behavior to purchase history to create unregulated algorithms. These algorithms are then used to determine whether a person is worthy of things like credit… read analysis of E-scores/E-scoring

Redlining is an illegal practice used by bankers and insurance companies to delineate neighborhoods in which they refuse to invest or operate. Modern-day redlining is often fueled by harmful algorithms (what O’Neil calls “weapons… read analysis of Redlining

Microtargeting is any kind of personalized advertising targeted at a specific person (or kind of person) based on data gathered from a person’s internet history or demographics. Microtargeting is vast, hard to understand, and unregulated—so… read analysis of Microtargeting