Cathy O'Neil Quotes

I hope that, in the future, data is used to empower people and not just for marketing purposes.

As an anonymous participant in financial markets, I never had to weigh the social consequences of my actions ... I felt justified in ignoring them on the grounds that I was playing by the rules.

I don't think there is a particular responsibility on designers that is not on other professions... I think there's a responsibility for all of us to engage on all levels.

There's a project that I started at HHS called the Health Data Initiative. The whole idea was to take a page from what the government had done to make weather data and GPS available back in the day.

We're rapidly entering a world where everything can be monitored and measured. But the big problem is going to be the ability of humans to use, analyze and make sense of the data.

We also have issue oriented storylines which are an examination of an issue, be it ethical or social.

Actually, that issue of 'Don't be evil' is probably the number one reason we throw out ideas.

As our society tips toward one based on data, our collective decisions around how that data can be used will determine what kind of a culture we live in.

I clearly say yes to Big Data, yes to greater security and convenience, but no to paternalism and Big Brother.'

As a society, we are underinvesting resources in research on the societal implications of AI technologies.

We must never let a blizzard of statistics blind us to the real lives and people behind them.

It is the mark of a greatly educated person to be deeply moved by statistics.

It always makes me super nervous how many tech companies don't have data ethicists.

As a programme-maker you've got a responsibility to examine your choices and how they play in the wider world.

With big data comes big responsibilities.

The promoters of big data would like us to believe that behind the lines of code and vast databases lie objective and universal insights into patterns of human behavior, be it consumer spending, criminal or terrorist acts, healthy habits, or employee productivity. But many big-data evangelists avoid taking a hard look at the weaknesses.

Two basic values, autonomy and solidarity, serve as helpful prompters in any decision-making process.

I do feel a responsibility to address things that are problematic, but I don't have to go out of my way to do that.

It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. But I am sure that figures show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.

The needs of a society determine its ethics.

I'm a very good decision maker because I have core set of principles and so I can make decisions. Decisions can be very hard and you have to wrestle with them, but I'm able to get all the data on the table and figure out what would be the best decision because decisions mean ill for some people and mean positives for others.

A good person is one who follows the Ten Commandments and the golden rule. There is plenty of precedent in history to guide us and we probably evolved to be sensitive to Bible-Golden Rule situations. But the dilemmas faced by a worker - a journalist, an architect, an auditor - or by a citizen (what position to take on stem cell research, whether to run for office, what is the proper balance between taxation and social nets) - are not questions that can be answered by traditional texts or precedents.

Instead of a bottom-line based on money and power, we need a new bottom-line that defines productivity and creativity as where corporations, governments, schools, public institutions, and social practices are judged as efficient, rational and productive not only to the extent they maximize money and power, but to the extent they maximize love and caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity, and our capacities to respond with awe and wonder at the grandeur of creation.

An education that teaches you to understand something about the world has done only half of the assignment. The other half is to teach you to do something about making the world a better place.

Context is to data what water is to a dolphin