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Data science reading list for Wednesday, October 31, 2018: Actually, it’s about ethics in data science

DJ Patil’s code of ethics for data science

From the article:

2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day. It’s created by you when you’re commute to work or school, when you’re shopping, when you get a medical treatment, and even when you’re sleeping. It’s created by you, your neighbors, and everyone around you. So, how do we ensure it’s used ethically?

Back in 2014, before I entered public service, I wrote a post called Making the World Better One Scientist at a Time that discussed concerns I had at the time about data. What’s interesting, is how much of it is still relevant today. The biggest difference? The scale of data and coverage of data has massively increased since then and with it the opportunity to do both good and bad.

…

With the old adage that with great power comes great responsibility, it’s time for the data science community to take a leadership role in defining right from wrong. Much like the Hippocratic Oath defines Do No Harm for the medical profession, the data science community must have a set of principles to guide and hold each other accountable as data science professionals. To collectively understand the difference between helpful and harmful. To guide and push each other in putting responsible behaviors into practice. And to help empower the masses rather than to disenfranchise them. Data is such an incredible lever arm for change, we need to make sure that the change that is coming, is the one we all want to see.

So how do we do it? First, there is no single voice that determines these choices. This MUST be community effort. Data Science is a team sport and we’ve got to decide what kind of team we want to be.

Should data scientists adhere to a Hippocratic oath?

From Wired (February 8, 2018):

THE TECH INDUSTRY is having a moment of reflection. Even Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook are talking openly about the downsides of software and algorithms mediating our lives. And while calls for regulation have been met with increased lobbying to block or shape any rules, some people around the industry are entertaining forms of self regulation. One idea swirling around: Should the programmers and data scientists massaging our data sign a kind of digital Hippocratic oath?

Microsoft released a 151-page book last month on the effects of artificial intelligence on society that argued “it could make sense” to bind coders to a pledge like that taken by physicians to “first do no harm.” In San Francisco Tuesday, dozens of data scientists from tech companies, governments, and nonprofits gathered to start drafting an ethics code for their profession.

The general feeling at the gathering was that it’s about time that the people whose powers of statistical analysis target ads, advise on criminal sentencing, and accidentally enable Russian disinformation campaigns woke up to their power, and used it for the greater good.

“We have to empower the people working on technology to say ‘Hold on, this isn’t right,’” DJ Patil, chief data scientist for the United States under President Obama, told WIRED. (His former White House post is currently vacant.) Patil kicked off the event, called Data For Good Exchange. The attendee list included employees of Microsoft, Pinterest, and Google.

Schaun Wheeler’s take on codes of data ethics: Not just unimplementable, but built on the wrong foundation

I’m still making up my mind about Schaun Wheeler’s contrarian take on codes of data ethics, but that may be colored by my dislike of Joel Grus’ dickishly libertarian “fuck your ethics” stance. I’ve included Wheeler’s take, along with his interview on Joel Grus’ podcast, Adversarial Learning, for the sake of completeness, with the caveat that I’m undecided on it.

On the difficulty of creating a data science code of ethics (Hackernoon, February 2, 2018):

dj patil recently wrote about the need for a code of ethics for data science. It’s not clear to me that data science as a profession is ready for a code of ethics. Codes are just words unless there is a mechanism to enforce sanctions against people who disregard those codes, and I’m pretty sure no single data science community is cohesive enough to enforce rules even for its own members.

An ethical code can’t be about ethics (Towards Data Science, February 6, 2018):

Last week, I wrote about my skepticism of Data for Democracy’s intent to create a data science code of ethics. My concerns focused on the practical feasibility of the project. After a lot of talking about, reading, and watching the evolution of the D4D code of ethics, I still believe the proposed principles are largely unactionable. I also believe, now, that what the working groups have produced is built on the wrong foundation entirely. This isn’t about iterating forward to a solution. No amount of revision can succeed if you’re building the wrong thing.

We need to be clear on what a code of ethics means. If we can realistically expect everyone in the community to just adopt a code of ethics because they intuitively feel that it’s the good and right thing to do, then the code of ethics is unnecessary — it amounts to nothing more than virtue signaling. If we can’t realistically expect complete organic adoption, then the code is a mechanism to coerce those who disagree with it, to censure people who don’t abide by it. Those two routes — wholesale freewill adoption or coercion — are the only two ways a code of ethics can actually mean anything.

Ed. note: Wheeler uses the phrase “virtue signaling” in this essay, a phrase that I think of the real-world equivalent of “Hail Hydra”: as a way for villains identify themselves to their comrades.

Can we be honest about ethics? (Hackernoon, March 5, 2018):

Ethics is not a solvable problem but it is a manageable risk. No set of principles, not even a robust legal and regulatory infrastructure, will ensure ethical outcomes. Our goal should be to ensure that algorithm design decisions are made by competent, ethical individuals — preferably, by groups of such individuals. If we improve competency, we improve ethics. Most ethical mistakes come from the inability to foresee consequences, not the inability to tell right from wrong.

An effective ethical code doesn’t need to — in fact, probably shouldn’t — focus on ethical issues. What matters most are the consequences, not the tools we use to bring those consequences about. As long as an ethical code stipulates ways individual practitioners can prove their competence by voluntarily taking on “unnecessary” costs and risks, it will weed out the less competent and the less ethical. That’s the list we should be building. That’s the product that will result in a more ethical profession.

My code of ethics will forbid YAML (Adversarial Learning podcast, May 25, 2018):

Joel Grus’ and Andrew K. Musselman’s podcast, Adversarial Learning, have Schaun Wheeler as a guest to talk about his stance on the proposed code of ethics. When listening to this episode, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was listening to three smug white guys with (sometimes literally) no skin in the game.

Weapons of Math Destruction, by Cathy O’Neil

Worthwhile reading, or listening (the author reads the audiobook herself). I enjoyed it!

From the book description:

A former Wall Street quant sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life — and threaten to rip apart our social fabric

We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives—where we go to school, whether we get a car loan, how much we pay for health insurance—are being made not by humans, but by mathematical models. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules, and bias is eliminated.

But as Cathy O’Neil reveals in this urgent and necessary book, the opposite is true. The models being used today are opaque, unregulated, and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination: If a poor student can’t get a loan because a lending model deems him too risky (by virtue of his zip code), he’s then cut off from the kind of education that could pull him out of poverty, and a vicious spiral ensues. Models are propping up the lucky and punishing the downtrodden, creating a “toxic cocktail for democracy.” Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.

deon: An ethics checklist for data scientists

From the deon site:

deon is a command line tool that allows you to easily add an ethics checklist to your data science projects. We support creating a new, standalone checklist file or appending a checklist to an existing analysis in many common formats.

δέον • (déon) [n.] (Ancient Greek) wikitionary

Duty; that which is binding, needful, right, proper.

The conversation about ethics in data science, machine learning, and AI is increasingly important. The goal of deon is to push that conversation forward and provide concrete, actionable reminders to the developers that have influence over how data science gets done.

Here are the first two sections of the default checklist that deon generates:

Data Science Ethics Checklist

A. Data Collection

  •  A.1 Informed consent: If there are human subjects, have they given informed consent, where subjects affirmatively opt-in and have a clear understanding of the data uses to which they consent?
  •  A.2 Collection bias: Have we considered sources of bias that could be introduced during data collection and survey design and taken steps to mitigate those?
  •  A.3 Limit PII exposure: Have we considered ways to minimize exposure of personally identifiable information (PII) for example through anonymization or not collecting information that isn’t relevant for analysis?

B. Data Storage

  •  B.1 Data security: Do we have a plan to protect and secure data (e.g., encryption at rest and in transit, access controls on internal users and third parties, access logs, and up-to-date software)?

  •  B.2 Right to be forgotten: Do we have a mechanism through which an individual can request their personal information be removed?

  •  B.3 Data retention plan: Is there a schedule or plan to delete the data after it is no longer needed?

 

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Data science reading list for Tuesday, October 30, 2018: The sexiest job, most in-demand data skills, 4 ways the data scientist has evolved, and the null hypothesis and p-values

Is data science still among the sexiest jobs of the 21st century?

It was in a 2012 Harvard Business Review article that data scientist was declared “the sexiest job of the 21st century”. Is it still true six years later?

I’ll spare you the torment and give you the answer, which (naturally) appears at the end of the article:

The role of data scientists is and will remain a sexy profession for some time, partly due to its relative exclusivity, and the field of data science itself will no doubt remain an exciting space.

You may find the middle of the article a little more useful, as it lists qualities of good data scientists:

A good data scientist should be:

  • Adaptable: Data scientists must be willing to constantly upskill themselves to master advanced machine learning skills such as deep learning. While technical skills are fundamental for data scientists, it’s crucial for them to master communication skills too so they can easily interact with domain experts or business developers. Data scientists will need to develop a better understanding of the overarching business strategy and business challenges in real-world scenarios to create solutions for real problems.
  • Statistics at the heart: Data scientists must have quantitative capabilities to figure out multifaceted trends within a data set that may entail more than one million rows.
  • Detail-oriented: Data often have errors and discrepancies, and data scientists must identify and correct incomplete, incorrect or inaccurate data. It’s critical that data are clean, high-quality and unbiased to ensure the best output upon which to make business decisions.
  • Good programming skills: Programming skills, together with statistics, are critical. For statistical analysis to happen, data scientists need to know programming languages (such as Java, SQL, and Python) to break down the data set in more digestible formats.
  • Business knowledge: While it is important for data scientists to be technically capable, they must also be business savvy and understand the organisation’s business goals and objectives, so they can analyse the data to support business success.

The most in-demand skills for data scientists

Here are the two key graphs from the article:

From the end of the article:

Based on the results of these analyses, here are some general recommendations for current and aspiring data scientists concerned with making themselves widely marketable.

  • Demonstrate you can do data analysis and focus on becoming really skilled at machine learning.
  • Invest in your communication skills. I recommend reading the book Made to Stick to help your ideas have more impact. Also check out the Hemmingway Editor app to improve the clarity of your writing.
  • Master a deep learning framework. Being proficient with a deep learning framework is a larger and larger part of being proficient with machine learning. For a comparison of deep learning frameworks in terms of usage, interest, and popularity see my article here.
  • If you are choosing between learning Python and R, choose Python. If you have Python down cold, consider learning R. You’ll definitely be more marketable if you also know R.

Four Ways the Data Scientist Has Evolved in the 21st Century

These four ways are:

1. Data science is more applied than ever. What can be built and fit over a real-life scenario has the dreadful requirement of mattering. Modeling for modeling sake is no longer a thing, and best-fit diagnostics are less important than best-fit for the situation. If a model goes unused, it serves no purpose. We can no longer tolerate or afford the luxury of building models purely for R&D purposes without consideration of utilization.

2. The skill of computer use seems to have taken over the knowledge of applied statistics. Understanding the interior workings of the black box has become less important, unless you are the creator of the black box. Fewer data scientists with truly deep knowledge of statistical methods are kept in the lab creating the black boxes that hopefully get integrated within tools. This is somewhat frustrating for long time data professionals with rigorous statistical background and understanding, but this path may be necessary to truly scale modeling efforts with the volume of data, business questions, and complexities we now must answer.

3. Data scientists are not weird anymore. We’re seen as strategic inputs to the decision-making process, and our craft is becoming much more understood. This trend is evidenced by C-level positions at large companies, vertical alignment and paths for data scientists, and inclusion at the highest levels, as well as the many academic programs and emphasis now available globally. This appreciation and positioning can sometimes make the field appealing for what seasoned data scientists might call the “wrong reasons” such as corporate fame and value. I would argue that we really want professionals in the field with a thirst for the truth – the science should be about empirically answering questions, and powered by truth-seekers at their heart.

4. Data Science is becoming more widely recognized as both art and science. Understanding the importance of the human – machine integration and complementary decision-making skills from each appears to have made its way more squarely into our field of understanding.

Statistical Significance, the Null Hypothesis and P-Values Defined & Explained in One Minute

And finally, some material that’s more than just hand-waving: a quick explanation of what the null hypothesis and p-values are, all done in a minute, courtesy of One Minute Economics:

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AI hasn’t brought about the Singularity, but it’s given us the next best thing

And (surprise, surprise), it’s open source and on Github.

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Tech t-shirt of the day

Click the photo to see it at full size.

Thanks to the Facebook group People of Color in Tech for the find!

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Data science reading list for Monday, October 29, 2018: The worst data science article, 5 basic stats concepts you need to know, Bayes, democratization, and web scraping

A terrible “data skills” article that you should read, but only as a warning

I remember the hype that surrounded the web in the late 1990s. I also remember the copious amount of well-intentioned misinformation that made the rounds as writers attempted to capitalize on that hype. It’s now data science’s turn, if this bit of “advertorial” in Harvard Business Review — Prioritize Which Data Skills Your Company Needs with This 2×2 Matrix — is any indication.

Written by Chris Littlewood, chief innovation and product officer of filtered.com (I’m not going to help them by linking to their site), a company that purports to use AI to “lift productivity by making learning recommendations”, the article clearly highlight’s the author’s ignorance and HBR’s willingness to publish any article that has to do with data or data science. To the credit of the readers, a number of them registered with the site simply to be able to post comments pointing out how nonsensical the article was.

Treat this article as an object lesson in technology hype, as well a sign that data science skills are seen as valuable.

The 5 Basic Statistics Concepts Data Scientists Need to Know

Forget that the article mentioned above said that mathematics and statistics aren’t useful data skills — you can’t do data science without them! You’ll need to understand these 5 concepts (in addition to others):

  1. Statistical features
  2. Probability distributions
  3. Dimensionality reduction
  4. Under- and oversampling
  5. Bayesian statistics

This article in Towards Data Science provides a brief overview.

Data Skeptic: Bayesian Updating

One of the better data science podcasts out there is Kyle Polich’s Data Skeptic, which has been around since 2014 and has over 400 episodes. The podcast features short mini-episodes explaining high level concepts in data science, and longer interview segments with researchers and practitioners.

I’ve just started working my way through this podcast, and have used the example in episode 5, Bayesian Updating, to explain Bayes’ Theorem to people who avoiding studying probability and stats. Give it a listen, then check out the rest of the podcast episodes!

The Democratization of Data Science

Here’s a Harvard Business Review article on data science that’s actually worth reading:

Intelligent people find new uses for data science every day. Still, despite the explosion of interest in the data collected by just about every sector of American business — from financial companies and health care firms to management consultancies and the government — many organizations continue to relegate data-science knowledge to a small number of employees.

That’s a mistake — and in the long run, it’s unsustainable. Think of it this way: Very few companies expect only professional writers to know how to write. So why ask only professional data scientists to understand and analyze data, at least at a basic level?

Data Science Skills: Web scraping using python

Another article from Towards Data Science:

One of the first tasks that I was given in my job as a Data Scientist involved Web Scraping. This was a completely alien concept to me at the time, gathering data from websites using code, but is one of the most logical and easily accessible sources of data. After a few attempts, web scraping has become second nature to me and one of the many skills that I use almost daily.

In this tutorial I will go through a simple example of how to scrape a website to gather data on the top 100 companies in 2018 from Fast Track. Automating this process with a web scraper avoids manual data gathering, saves time and also allows you to have all the data on the companies in one structured file.

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Funny because it’s true

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What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, October 29, 2018)

Every week, I compile a list of events for developers, technologists, tech entrepreneurs, and nerds in and around the Tampa Bay area. We’ve got a lot of events going on this week, and here they are!

Monday, October 29

Tuesday, October 30

Tampa iOS Meetup — Adventures in iOS machine learning, part 2: Let’s build our own Core ML models!

In the last Tampa iOS Meetup, we built a simple app that could analyze a photo and say if it was a picture of healthy or unhealthy food. It used a CoreML model that someone trained by giving it hundreds of photos of food and classifying each as healthy (mostly photos of fruit) and unhealthy (photos of pastries, cookies, and other sugary foods).

Someone asked “How do make our own models?” at the end of that meetup. In this meetup, we’ll answer that question by going through the steps to build our own model using Python and Turi Create, and then incorporating that model into a Core ML app.

If you’ve always wanted to get into machine learning, but found the material on it intimidating, you’ll want to join us at this friendly meetup, where you’ll get than hang of machine learning, iOS-style!

Other meetups

Wednesday, October 31

Thursday, November 1

Friday, November 2

Saturday, November 3

Sunday, November 4