# Cathy O'Neil: The era of blind faith in big data must end

Algorithms decide who gets a loan, who gets a job interview, who gets insurance and much more — but they don't automatically make things fair. Mathematician and data scientist Cathy O'Neil coined a term for algorithms that are secret, important and harmful: "weapons of math destruction." Learn more about the hidden agendas behind the formulas.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2017
- By: TED.com
- Genres: Education, Science
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/CathyONeil_2017)
- Licence or status: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (as the archive states it)
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/CathyONeil_2017?play=1)