The Other Side of Big Data

Although the arrival of big data modeling and analytics has had a large impact on business decision making, there are increasing concerns that the application of such models may be naïve, myopic, and even irresponsible or... [ view full abstract ]

Although the arrival of big data modeling and analytics has had a large impact on business decision making, there are increasing concerns that the application of such models may be naïve, myopic, and even irresponsible or unethical. Unintended or unanticipated outcomes are identified more and more frequently. Societal concerns are wide-ranging, but the field is perhaps not yet mature enough to address those issues. The place of such dimensions in educating future researchers or practitioners is also examined.

This paper draws from the work of three authors to explore the landscape of such concerns.

• Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neill (Crown, 2016)
• Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz (Harper Collins, 2017)
• The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Z. Muller (Princeton University Press, 2018)

The presentation will provide examples from each source and the context for those as well. Pedagogical considerations will be addressed as well.