Big Data Too Is Prone to Human Bug
August 2, 2017
Conventional wisdom says Big Data being a realm of machines is immune from human behavioral traits like discrimination. Insights from data scientists, however, are different.
According to an article published by PHYS.ORG titled Discrimination, Lack of Diversity, and Societal Risks of Data Mining Highlighted in Big Data, the author says:
Despite the dramatic growth in big data affecting many areas of research, industry, and society, there are risks associated with the design and use of data-driven systems. Among these are issues of discrimination, diversity, and bias.
The crux of the problem is the way data is mined, processed and decisions made. At every step, humans need to be involved in order to tell machines how each of these processes are executed. If the person guiding the system is biased, these biases are bound to seep into the subsequent processes in some way.
Apart from decisions like granting credit, human resources which also is being automated may have diversity issues. The fundamental remains the same in this case too.
Big Data was touted as the next big thing and may turn out to be so, but most companies are yet to figure out how to utilize it. Streamlining the processes and making them efficient would be the next step.
Vishal Ingole, August 2, 2017
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