Bloomberg: Computers are getting pretty good at predicting the future. In many cases they do it better than people. That’s why Amazon uses them to figure out what you’re likely to buy, how Netflix knows what you might want to watch, the way meteorologists come up with accurate 10-day forecasts.
Now a team of scientists has demonstrated that a computer can outperform human judges in predicting who will commit a violent crime. In a paper published last month, they described how they built a system that started with people already arrested for domestic violence, then figured out which of them would be most likely to commit the same crime again.
The technology could potentially spare victims from being injured, or even killed. It could also keep the least dangerous offenders from going to jail unnecessarily. And yet, there’s something unnerving about using machines to decide what should happen to people. more
Weather predictions? YHTBKM.
I go against the experts and win 97% of the time. Farmers Almanac crushes the “experts” every single time.
That is so racist.
I wonder what it has to say about politicians?
Chris Christie consults a Magic Ate Ball…
The Magic 8-Ball in the White House needs to be rotated. 👿
Why doesn’t my rototiller know when it’s time to put the garden in? If it had it’s druthers, it would just sit in the shed choking it’s intake…
If the computer could predict when my goats need to poop…they’d be indoor goats…
There’s a movie about this very thing.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181689/
🙂
Eight-ball? Oh, I get it.
Amazon sucks at predicting what I want to purchase next, and their movie picks suck even more.
Let’s see, weather, uh, hockey sticks and global warming based on overheated computers? Or is it the data that’s fed into them.
Computers predict everything. It’s up to us to interpret the prediction.
#!iotwr
foreach @day { print “Live for $day, the world ends tomorrow.”; }
quit;
A very good book. Hits on this very subject.
A Rivertour recommended read.
Future Crimes by Marc Goodman
If I’m ever accused by a computer algorithm, I would insist on questioning the “witness”:
evaluate{
assertion a( b=false )
assertion b( a=true )
}
It’s great to know that both computers and humans are not infallible .Trust a computer? Not on your life. Do what they can’t: exercize your conscience. If not, be steamrolled.
Just like those wonderful computer models predicted global warming…
I hate to say it, but my Netflix “interest” watchlist is full of crappy movies I’ve got no interest in watching, and I get really sick and tired of Amazon trying to get me to buy stuff I don’t want. Until a computer can write an original love song, I will remain sceptical.
MJA, that picture is hilarious!
Netflix doesn’t have a clue what kind of movies I like to watch, they always suggest crap.
Amazon gets a clue, then I clear my cache and leave them clueless again.
And NSA can kiss my hairy black ass.
@Jukin, Former Republican , I went by the Farmer’s Almanac and told everybody it was going to be a hard cold winter. Now I feel like I’ve been gypped out of a winter and all my friends must think my predictions are unreliable. 🙁
The trees are already budding, spring is here early.
Stoobie is right. Amazon and Sportsman’s Guide pop ups always show me $hit I already bought. Can’t they even figure that out? I guess they show investors non-time stamped before and afters, “See we were dead on!”
Googol’s got their computer’s qualified as drivers, already.
I’ve read some dystopian sci-fi along those lines. As well as the Tom Cruise adaptation of the Phillip K Dick story “Minority Report”. Not a pretty picture. No thanks.