mathwash

present singular third person mathwashes · participle present mathwashing · participle past mathwashed · past mathwashed

1. intransitiveneologismtransitiveTo use data and algorithms to create the false impression that a subjective decision or policy was made objectively.

   The issue is definitional: "algorithm" has been used to mathwash functionality that would otherwise be considered arbitrary with objectivity

   2016 May 9, @fredbenenson, Twitter, archived from the original on 23 Apr 2024

   3 more examples

   While our systems can be assistants or even collaborators, we do not want to hand off responsibility to them. When we treat machine learning systems as oracles, rather than as assistants, we are headed in the wrong direction. We can't trick ourselves into thinking that a decision is fair because it is algorithmic. We can't afford to "mathwash" important decisions.

   2018 January 1, Mike Loukides, “The problem with building a "fair" system”, in O'Reilly Radar, archived from the original on 04 Jun 2023

   Deliberate mathwashing occurs when the algorithm is tweaked in order to course correct or skew the bias. Facebook allegedly mathwashed when it routinely suppressed conservative news in 2016.

   2018 January 29, Sophie Kleber, “As AI Meets the Reputation Economy, We're All Being Silently Judged”, in Harvard Business Review, Brighton, M.A.: Harvard Business Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 May 2023

   Striking Instacart workers have also opposed the company's "black box" app, which sets workers' pay via an unintelligible model that "mathwashes" their exploitation.

   2021 January 29, Nantina Vgontzas, Meredith Whittaker, “These Machines Won't Kill Fascism: Toward a Militant Progressive Vision for Tech”, in The Nation, new York, N.Y.: The Nation Company, L.P., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2024