2017-04-23

Featured Comments: Week of 2017 April 16

There was one post that got a comment this past week, so I'll repost that.

Book Review: "Weapons of Math Destruction" by Cathy O'Neil

An anonymous reader said, "I had one question. Since algorithms may have access to the internet, (not controlled by the government or any particular single body), I imagine it would be extremely difficult to minimize their abuse or misuse. I hope precautionary measures such as new government or private bodies or maybe benign algorithms will deal with this issue in the future. Does the author talk about such measures ? Also, it seems that there is a lot of unrest regarding AIs these days. People like to imagine situations where an AI designed with a rather innocent goal of calculating 'pi' with a significant precision exterminates human race, sets on a conquest of the entire galaxy just to calculate 'pi' but for reasons unfathomable. Does the author talk about misuse of algorithms by AIs ? Although I am asking about the book, I would be more interested to know your personal views on these. :) Thank you."

Thanks to that reader for that comment. I don't have anything particularly planned on this blog for this week, but I may have a distribution review next week. Anyway, if you like what I write, please continue subscribing and commenting!