Algorithms play a huge role in our lives, shaping decisions that impact individuals and societies at large. In Cathy O'Neil’s book "Weapons of Math Destruction," O’Neil highlights three important factors that define the potential destructiveness of an algorithm. These factors are opacity, scale, and damage. Throughout this essay, we are going to explore specific examples of both transparent and opaque algorithms, as well as algorithms with varying scales of impact, to highlight their potential consequences on individuals and society.
Opacity refers to the extent to which the internal workings of an algorithm are clear to outsiders. A highly transparent algorithm is one that allows individuals to understand how it operates and how decisions
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Algorithms can have either small-scale or large-scale impacts, influencing the lives of a few or many individuals, respectively. A small-scale impact algorithm can be found in personalized music recommendations on streaming platforms. These algorithms use individual listening preferences to suggest similar songs or artists. While these recommendations influence individuals' musical experiences, the impact remains localized and limited to personal enjoyment. This would be potentially destructive due to the user only getting songs that they would like, not letting them expand their music taste to other genres. Conversely, large-scale impact algorithms can profoundly affect society as a whole. An example of this would be predictive policing algorithms used by some law enforcement agencies. Predictive policing algorithms analyze historical crime data to identify areas with higher crime rates and allocate police resources accordingly. However, due to potential biases in the data or algorithm design, certain communities may face over-policing, perpetuating social inequalities, and reinforcing preexisting biases within the criminal justice …show more content…
The consequences of a destructive algorithm can range from personal setbacks to systemic injustices. Consider the case of social media content moderation algorithms. These algorithms are responsible for identifying and removing harmful or inappropriate content from platforms. When implemented effectively, they can protect users from harassment, hate speech, and misinformation. However, if poorly designed or susceptible to manipulation, they can also lead to unintended consequences such as censorship, stifling of free speech, or algorithmic bias. In contrast, algorithmic trading in financial markets represents an example of damage on a systemic level. High-frequency trading algorithms, characterized by their speed and automation, can cause market instability and contribute to market crashes. These algorithms, operating at a rapid pace, can exacerbate fluctuations and create financial vulnerabilities, potentially damaging both individual investors and the overall stability of financial
(Witkin 2) From there, Witkin begins to analyze the connection between the crime decrease and harsher prison sentencing and smarter policing (Witkin 2) As stated by Witkin, “Imprisonment...seems to be important, but not the underlying cause of the crime drop…” and while “...smarter policing was spectacularly decisive in some cities… it probably was not the key factor nationwide.” (Witkin 3-4).
In the digital age, social media platforms have become an integral part of our daily lives. Facebook, the world's largest social network, has been the subject of intense scrutiny over the years due to its handling of user data and privacy concerns. In a recent article published on Vox, titled "Facebook’s data collection tactics and algorithms threaten our privacy and democracy," author Rani Molla explores the ways in which Facebook's data collection and algorithmic systems pose a threat to both user privacy and democratic values. Through a combination of rhetorical strategies, Molla successfully argues that Facebook's actions represent a clear danger to both individuals and society as a whole.
The authors explore difficult social issues that are most of the time highly misunderstood and possible meaningful solutions to such crimes. The writers also acknowledge that the measures to detect these types of crimes reflect bias reasoning is both complex and highly controversial. In addition, the authors emphasize the fact that many efforts that have been intended to find a solution to this type of injustice, but it has been characterized to having varying degrees of “ineffectual and create collateral problems” (Frederickson and Siljander,
According to a report by the Knight Foundation, 86% of college students believe that social media companies censor political views that they disagree with (Grimmer & Tucker, 2020). This is a concerning trend because it is leading to a lack of diversity of thought and ideas, which is essential for a healthy democracy. This technology addiction distracts people from reality and limits our ability to think. This excessive use of technology is a cause for concern because it is leading to a lack of meaningful human interaction and critical thinking. If America continues down this path, it may end up like the society depicted in Fahrenheit 451, where people are unable to think for
In today’s modern world, many students in high school are striving to be the best, and sometimes to get there, students compete against each other which than of course brings on the pressure and stress of not only keeping up with classes but making it to the top of the class and becoming valedictorian. They will do anything to reach the top, sometimes even cheating to surpass fellow students. Although Margaret Talbot acknowledges the other arguments that becoming a valedictorian is great and should not be gotten rid of in her article “Best in Class”, she conveys the message that competition for valedictorian is unnecessary through her use of diction and testimonies. Talbot uses strong diction to show the reader that the competition for valedictorian
In her article titled The Flip Side Of Internet Fame, Jessica Bennett focuses on how social media is a place that’s full of hysteria. Bennett says, “Online there are few checks and hardly any monitoring. Moreover, studies show that the anonymity of the net encourages people to say things they normally wouldn’t.” In an attempt to fit in, many take the side of the most common posted opinion even if extremely vulgar or offensive, which can send a large group of people in the same state of fury. These incidents on the internet can have a more hysteric effect, entire cities, states, and countries have felt endangered over a post on a website.
(Angwin, et al.) What John, and Holder really means is the system of predicting future crimes, and who might commit them has many flaws, from accusing the wrong people, to basing predictions off biases. In conclusion, “Machine Bias” by Julia Angwin, et al. and “Should Prison Sentences Be Based on Crimes That Haven’t Been Committed Yet?”
To illustrate this idea and relate it to a recent event, popular “meme” page admins on a prominent social media website, Facebook, have been boycotting the site due to the sites active use of censorship, according to an article written by Sage Lazzaro from The Observer. The admins and
A major problem that has dominated the world in today’s society is the development of mass media. The mass media is said, “to be divided into two types: print and broadcast,” but the advancement of the internet became problematic. The internet allows the public to view the news by providing information between the citizens, and government faster than any other source. Consequently, this resulted in the decline of newspapers while more people began reading online. The negative effect of the internet is described as, “a wild west atmosphere” in which individuals may post whatever they wish online, “without professional, organizational, or legal concerns about its source” (Janda, Berry, Goldman, Schildkraut, and Manna, 2017, 148).
Systemic racism refers to the ways in which policies, practices, and cultural norms within a society perpetuate racial inequality and injustice. Within the criminal justice system, systemic racism is evident in a variety of ways, including racial profiling, discriminatory sentencing, and over-policing of communities of color. Racial profiling, or the practice of targeting individuals based on their race or ethnicity, has been shown to be a significant factor in the disproportionate representation of people of color in the criminal justice system (López, 2014). Research has found that Black and Latinx individuals are more likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested by police than their white counterparts, even when controlling for factors such as crime rates and socioeconomic status (Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie, & Davies, 2004). Moreover, studies have shown that racial bias among police officers is a significant factor in these disparities (Risse, Zeckhauser, Chon, & Karlan, 2017).
These important impacts could be any kind of crime. Most crimes that are done are mostly done by the mentally ill. The mentally ill are not very stable in their environment so they do things that they think could make it better but then end up homeless. For example “In many places, police, judges and elected officials increasingly are pointing out that a high proportion of people in jail are mentally ill, and that in many cases they shouldn't be there”(Micheal).
Censorship is dangerous, and too much of it can lead to an inevitable destruction of our
Censorship can be very harmful to society but it also has the power to save it from creating negative
Throughout the past ten years, social media has increasingly become a phenomenon all over the world. In the United States alone, 81% of the population owns some sort of social media account (“Percentage of U.S. population”). With this increasing number, social media has reached an extremely large audience in which resulted in a melting pot of diverse discussions on daily topics. Due to this enormous audience, one must be quite cautious about what they share online. These platforms have become a useful tool that may result in real-life consequences if used in an inefficient way.
Police (Disadvantages) • Crime mapping is open source information which anyone can access online, adversaries included. Crime mapping will aid adversaries in planning and earmarking criminal activities based on the information provided online. Adversaries can clearly see where police forces are most active and which locations are targeted more often. Adversaries can therefore target the same locations due to poor base line security measures from local police, residents and companies, or target locations where police activity is minimal. Crime mapping is man power intensive and requires additional support updating the system with real time information.