Author: Lee Schlenker
Publisher: Medium
Publication Year: 2019
Summary: The following article introduces the concept of data science by first stating the importance and the reach that data scientists have in the world. Data scientists help drive decision-making across many different industries and help drive important decisions across the world. With that in mind, the article emphasizes the importance of the human impact of a lot of the decisions that data scientists are helping drive as wells as the ethics that comes along with helping drive those decisions. The article goes into several subsections, which each uniquely emphasize important categories of ethical data science. The first is data citizens, which highlights the importance of keeping personal data private. The next is automated decision making to which they bring up several important ethical points to consider, such as the possibility to “cheat” the system. The next is micro-targeting, which highlights the potential danger of turning customers into objects of manipulation. The next is distribute ledgers, in which the article highlights the societal issues of relatively untested technologies. Finally, the last is human and machine intelligence, which highlights the issues of accuracy and intrepetability within a given model.