Data Scientist Cathy O’Neil: “Algorithms Are Opinions Embedded in Code”

> My definition of success is: a meal is successful if my kids eat vegetables. It’s very different from if my youngest son were in charge. He’d say success is if he gets to eat lots of Nutella. But I get to choose success. I am in charge. My opinion matters. That’s the first rule of algorithms.

> Algorithms are opinions embedded in code. It’s really different from what you think most people think of algorithms. They think algorithms are objective and true and scientific. That’s a marketing trick. It’s also a marketing trick to intimidate you with algorithms, to make you trust and fear algorithms because you trust and fear mathematics. A lot can go wrong when we put blind faith in big data.

Is funny and then she builds on this a few insightful arguments.

I think her imagery is quite evocative and she deserves much applause for it. That said, wouldn't a more accurate categorization be "Algorithms are presuppositions embedded in code". Opinions seems a bit limited, but perhaps I'm splitting vernacular hairs.

There's a fundamentally wrong view of the way algorithms are written implicit here. Take for example a recommendation algorithm for porn. It's not written by some programmer expressing his tastes in code, like he would in language, it's written by analyzing the tastes of lots of people. If the result is racist - maybe people prefer black men and asian women - then it's because people's tastes are racist, not because the programmer is racist.