Original study

Moore, Steven C., et al. “Association of leisure-time physical activity with risk of 26 types of cancer in 1.44 million adults.” JAMA internal medicine 176.6 (2016): 816-825.

• Volunteers were asked about their physical activity level over the preceding year.
• Half exercised less than about 150 minutes per week, half exercised more.
• Compared to the bottom 10% of exercisers, the top 10% had lower rates of esophageal, liver, lung, endometrial, colon, and breast cancer.
• Researchers found no association between exercising and 13 other cancers (e.g. pancreatic, ovarian, and brain).

Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state?

On December 19, 2014, the front page of Spanish national newspaper El País read “Catalan public opinion swings toward ‘no’ for independence, says survey”.

Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state?

OK Cupid data breach

• In 2016, researchers published data of 70,000 OkCupid users—including usernames, political leanings, drug usage, and intimate sexual details

• Researchers didn’t release the real names and pictures of OKCupid users, but their identities could easily be uncovered from the details provided, e.g. usernames

Some may object to the ethics of gathering and releasing this data. However, all the data found in the dataset are or were already publicly available, so releasing this dataset merely presents it in a more useful form.

Researchers Emil Kirkegaard and Julius Daugbjerg Bjerrekær

In analysis of data that individuals willingly shared publicly on a given platform (e.g. social media), how do you make sure you don’t violate reasonable expectations of privacy?

Amazon’s experimental hiring algorithm

• Used AI to give job candidates scores ranging from one to five stars – much like shoppers rate products on Amazon
• Amazon’s system was not rating candidates for software developer jobs and other technical posts in a gender-neutral way; it taught itself that male candidates were preferable

Gender bias was not the only issue. Problems with the data that underpinned the models’ judgments meant that unqualified candidates were often recommended for all manner of jobs, the people said.

ProPublica analysis

Results:

• 20% of those predicted to commit violent crimes actually did
• Algorithm had higher accuracy (61%) when full range of crimes taken into account (e.g. misdemeanors) ::: {.cell} ::: {.cell-output-display} ::: :::
• Algorithm was more likely to falsely flag black defendants as future criminals, at almost twice the rate as white defendants
• White defendants were mislabeled as low risk more often than black defendants