Cathy O'Neil

EXCLUSIVE
  • Big Data Scientist
  • Algorithm Expert: Bias, Opportunity and Risks for business and life
  • New York Times Bestselling Author
  • Founder, ORCAA, an algorithmic auditing company

Data skeptic and New York Times bestselling author Cathy O’Neil is a thought leader exploring the realities and dangers of social networking, the consequences of algorithm design, and defending human dignity in the context of predatory capitalism. A prolific voice in academia and the private sector, O’Neil is the New York Times bestselling author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, which was a semifinalist for the National Book Award. She is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, a renowned blogger, and her expertise was featured in the critically acclaimed documentary The Social Dilemma. O’Neill is the Founder of ORCAA, a consultancy providing algorithmic auditing services focused on safety, fairness, and principled use of data, and launched the Lede Program in Data Journalism at Columbia University. Her latest book, The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation, investigates how shame functions as a tool across sectors including government, the healthcare system, and the wellness industry. With a mathematics Ph.D. and background in finance and AdTech startups, O’Neil offers unparalleled insight and analysis about the challenges that lie ahead for individuals and businesses in our increasingly algorithmic world.

 


Cathy O'Neil headshot
Past Hosts Include:
  • TED
  • Cisco Systems, Inc.
  • SHIFT Business Festival
  • Brandwatch
  • Achieving the Dream, Inc.
  • The Park School
  • PYMNTS.com
  • Talks at Google
  • Clearbox
  • Allterra Group
Rave Reviews About Cathy O'Neil
My team was extremely pleased with the session. Cathy is a phenomenal speaker and so thought-provoking.

News Interview - 'The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation' | WGN News [4:48] - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Cathy O'Neil
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AI & ChatGPT – Neither Wise Nor Threatening

In this engaging talk, big data scientist, author, and algorithm expert CATHY O’NEIL breaks down the headlines around the newest generation of AI tools, ChatGPT. With her trademark humor and gift for making scientific language accessible, Cathy dispels the myths around whether to celebrate – or fear ...

In this engaging talk, big data scientist, author, and algorithm expert CATHY O’NEIL breaks down the headlines around the newest generation of AI tools, ChatGPT. With her trademark humor and gift for making scientific language accessible, Cathy dispels the myths around whether to celebrate – or fear – these new tools, and how individuals and organizations can use them for maximum benefit while minimizing harm.

Algorithms Don’t Predict the Future, They Cause the Future

We all know that algorithms determine which social media ads you see, but have you considered how they are deciding your fate? Algorithms decide who gets the job, who gets into the college and which dating candidates you see. In some companies AI performance reviews determine who gets fired and prom ...

We all know that algorithms determine which social media ads you see, but have you considered how they are deciding your fate? Algorithms decide who gets the job, who gets into the college and which dating candidates you see. In some companies AI performance reviews determine who gets fired and promoted. Some of the biggest moments in your life are decided by algorithms. You are being nudged if not pushed into the path determined by The Digital Fates. In this talk, CATHY O’NEIL reveals the bias inherent in these algorithms, raises your awareness of how it is impacting your life, and teaches you how you can opt out to avoid being fooled or left out.  

How to Fix the Inherent and Unintended Risks of the Algorithms

This speech holds an important message for tech companies which create algorithms and the companies which employ them to determine pricing, customer experience, or user outcomes. In this talk, CATHY O’NEIL raises awareness of how algorithms can embed inherent bias, which may end up rendering product ...

This speech holds an important message for tech companies which create algorithms and the companies which employ them to determine pricing, customer experience, or user outcomes. In this talk, CATHY O’NEIL raises awareness of how algorithms can embed inherent bias, which may end up rendering products illegal.  She recommends scrutinizing the algorithms with an FDA style approach.  In her risk-consulting and her talks, O’Neil helps well-intentioned organizations understand the unintended consequences of inherent bias or blindspots in their algorithms, and helps them avoid legal, PR and moral complications.

 

What Can Go Wrong With Metrics

Companies are squeezed by margins, tough economic conditions, and regulations…but have you thought about how the wrong metrics might be squeezing your business? In her talk, algorithm and bias expert CATHY O’NEIL, helps you examine the metrics that are deciding the fate of your business. Optimizing ...

Companies are squeezed by margins, tough economic conditions, and regulations…but have you thought about how the wrong metrics might be squeezing your business?

In her talk, algorithm and bias expert CATHY O’NEIL, helps you examine the metrics that are deciding the fate of your business. Optimizing to those metrics - and the algorithms developed to do so - inform your access to capital, your supply chain, and the way you sell to consumers. You can understand these faulty algorithms even if you don’t have a PhD in math, and raise your awareness of how they are impacting your business.

 

Bad Algorithms & The Ethical Matrix

Algorithms can embed bias, they can propagate or even exacerbate inequality, or they can just be plain inaccurate. How do we keep track of all the potential problems? How do we make sure the algorithms we build "work well"? What do we even mean by that? In this talk CATHY O’NEIL will introduce the e ...

Algorithms can embed bias, they can propagate or even exacerbate inequality, or they can just be plain inaccurate. How do we keep track of all the potential problems? How do we make sure the algorithms we build "work well"? What do we even mean by that? In this talk CATHY O’NEIL will introduce the ethical matrix, a construction borrowed from moral philosophy, as a way of organizing our thoughts around important and urgent questions like these.

The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation

Based on her new book The Shame Machine, New York Times bestselling author and data expert CATHY O’NEIL investigates how shame functions as a tool across sectors, including government, the healthcare system, and the wellness industry. Drawing on her expertise as a mathematician, data scientist, and ...

Based on her new book The Shame Machine, New York Times bestselling author and data expert CATHY O’NEIL investigates how shame functions as a tool across sectors, including government, the healthcare system, and the wellness industry. Drawing on her expertise as a mathematician, data scientist, and lifelong fat person, O’Neil offers unparalleled insight about shame, its relationship to power, and how to cultivate dignity for ourselves and others in this age of social media and hyper partisan politics.

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Speaker News

Event Success Story: Digital futurist Cathy O’Neil drew crowds to the U.S. National Laboratory event

When algorithm and bias expert CATHY O’NEIL was invited to speak at a U.S. Research Laboratory run by the Department of Energy, staff engagement was through the atmosphere. O’Neil delivered a 45-minute keynote entitled “AI & ChatGPT: Neither Wise Nor Threatening” to the eager crowd. As always, she made the material accessible with her trademark humor and exceptional science communication skills, dispelling myths around the emergent technology, providing a roadmap to how individuals and organizations can use AI and ChatGPT for good. The U.S. Research Laboratory’s event planner said, "We reached our Zoom's license capacity during Cathy's presentation! It was a good problem to have... The presentation was great."

Watch Cathy O’Neil’s TED Talk >>

Artificial Intelligence (AI): The world’s top artificial intelligence speakers help businesses and industries plan for what’s next

The Harry Walker Agency represents the world's top Artificial Intelligence thought leaders, business moguls, and tech titans who provide invaluable insight in the rapidly shifting landscape of AI and Chat GPT. Corporate leaders like former CEO & Chairman of Xerox URSULA BURNS and former President, CEO, and Chairman of IBM GINNI ROMETTY inspire their audiences to lean into innovation. Renowned internet pioneers like SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE, JIMMY WALES, and the Statesman of AI DE KAI unpack these exceptional tech advancements. Global tech executives like PayPal’s former President and CEO DAN SCHULMAN, digital entrepreneur and VC investor PHIL LIBIN, and tech entrepreneur and VC angel investor MICHAEL MIGNANO offer actionable insights about building out a data-backed, high-impact strategy for growth. Tech founder and change agent MIKE MUSE, and algorithm expert CATHY O’NEIL speak to how teams can work with AI to achieve astounding results, while emphasizing our values of ingenuity, courage, and inclusion. Data scientist and Cambridge Analytica whistleblower CHRISTOPHER WYLIE explains AI’s potential risks and how to navigate the complex cybersecurity issues.

Explore HWA’s Artificial Intelligence Speakers >>

Data expert Cathy O’Neil empowers audiences toward shared humanity in her new book, The Shame Machine

Data skeptic and New York Times bestselling author CATHY O’NEIL investigates shame and power in her highly-anticipated new book, The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation. In her analysis of the “shame industrial complex,” O’Neil shares what causes shame, how it’s weaponized across sectors, and what we can do to reinvest in one another’s humanity, as individuals, organizations, and communities. A trusted voice in academia and the private sector, O’Neil is the New York Times bestselling author of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy and a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Her thought leadership is sought after and she receives rave reviews after events, such as: "Cathy O’Neil was a huge hit. She is funny, smart, and truly wonderful. (…) She is brilliant, but has a wonderful way of bringing esoteric concepts into a realm that make them interesting and comprehensive for those of us who do not have PhDs in mathematics." (PYMNTS.com)

Drawing on her expertise as a mathematician and data scientist, and her lifelong struggle with body image, O’Neil offers unparalleled insights about shame, its relationship to power, and how to cultivate dignity for ourselves and others in this age of social media and hyper partisan politics. While her depth of experience makes her an expert on the impact of algorithm design on our lives and work, with The Shame Machine O’Neil turns our attention to our responsibility to stop the shame cycle and empowers audiences to consider their own and each other’s human dignity. Noted author Dave Eggers writes, “O’Neil reminds us that we must resist the urge to judge, belittle, and oversimplify, and instead allow always for complexity and lead always with empathy.”

Cathy O'Neil's blog and Bloomberg Opinion column

With a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard, a postdoctoral fellow at MIT, professorship at Barnard, and first-hand experience working through the credit crisis on Wall Street, CATHY O'NEIL provides trusted critical analysis of our ever increasing algorithmic world. O'Neil was tapped to appear as a professional in her field in The Social Dilemma, a critically-acclaimed film that explores the dangers of social networking. 

To keep informed of her latest insights, read her blog here >>

Read her Bloomberg Opinion column here  >>

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Biography

Cathy O’Neil earned a Ph.D. in math from Harvard and worked as a math professor at Barnard College before switching over to the private sector, working as a quant for the hedge fund D.E. Shaw and as a data scientist in the New York start-up scene. She is a regular contributor to Bloomberg Opinion and in 2016 wrote the book Weapons of Math Destruction: how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. She is the CEO of ORCAA, an algorithmic auditing company, is a member of the Public Interest Tech Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School. Her new book The Shame Machine: who profits in the new age of humiliation is coming out in March 2022.