Forecasting Who Would Re-Offend
In today's edition: Queering tech, race and algorithms, Uber and the environment, Ursula Burns, the Manhattan that could not be built, and healthier old age.
*** Event! Oakland! Queering Tech! We'll look at artists investigating identity through tech with curator and writer Dorothy Santos. And then we'll play games with artist Anna Anthropy, who makes games that explore the intersection of transfeminine identity, technology and witchcraft. It's free, RSVP, come through, Wednesday, May 25.***
1. ProPublica fascinatingly breaks down how one "risk assessment" algorithm demonstrated racial bias.
"In forecasting who would re-offend, the algorithm made mistakes with black and white defendants at roughly the same rate but in very different ways. The formula was particularly likely to falsely flag black defendants as future criminals, wrongly labeling them this way at almost twice the rate as white defendants. White defendants were mislabeled as low risk more often than black defendants."
2. Is Uber good or bad for the environment? We may actually find out.
"The company has heretofore made it difficult to independently study how far along this track it might be. It was this sort of opacity that instigated a massive and unprecedented review by UC Berkeley transit researchers and the National Resources Defense Council of Uber’s environmental impact claims. According to Dr. Shaheen, who is heading up the study, Uber has agreed to submit company data, platform data such as anonymized driver and rider information, and will also be issuing a rider survey which aims to collect sociodemographic and attitudinal data from its customers. All research will be conducted by a neutral third-party, without funding or control from Uber."
+ I'm old enough to remember when ridesharing was a key plank of forward-thinking greens.
3. The Fortune 500 is going to lose its only black female CEO.
"When Ursula Burns was named CEO of Xerox in 2009, she was heralded as the first black woman to lead an S&P 500 company. No one thought she would be the last. But with her plans to step down later this year, there will be no black women leading the 500 biggest US companies, and only 19 female CEOs at all, fewer than 4%. The numbers are even more grave for African-Americans; according to Fortune, there have only been 15 black CEOs in the Fortune 500 ever."
4. The New York that is versus the New York that could be built now.
"Mr. Smith and Mr. Trivedi evaluated public records on more than 43,000 buildings and discovered that about 17,000 of them, or 40 percent, do not conform to at least one part of the current zoning code. The reasons are varied. Some of the buildings have too much residential area, too much commercial space, too many dwelling units or too few parking spaces; some are simply too tall. These are buildings that could not be built today."
5. This is as big a deal as the increases in longevity the world has witnessed over the last 100+ years.
"Specifically, the average age of onset of arthritis was 64.7 years for the WWII veterans, but only 53.7 years for the Civil War veterans. Heart disease started nearly 10 years later, and chronic respiratory disease more than 11 years. Comparing the Union Army results with late 20th-century health surveys has led to estimates of disability-rate declines of 0.6 percent per year, accelerating to 1.7 percent per year in the 1980s and 1990s.2 These trends have continued into the 21st century, at least according to some measures."
1. propublica.org 2. motherboard.vice.com 3. qz.com 4. nytimes.com 5. nautil.us
Forecasting Who Would Re-Offend