Algorithms Can Be Pretty Crude Toward Women

My friend Michael Harris, a fellow mathematician and author, recently sent me his psychological profile as compiled by Apply Magic Sauce, an algorithm operated by the Cambridge University Psychometrics Centre. This is a cousin of an algorithm that profiles people via access to their Facebook accounts, some version of which was used last year by the software company Cambridge Analytica to help them sway U.S. voters.

Michael opted to input some of his writing, and was immediately profiled as “highly masculine,” among other personality traits. This intrigued me, and not only because I don’t think of Michael as the most macho of men -- he’s got the heart of a poet -- so I immediately tried it on myself. This recent Bloomberg View column about fake news and algorithms was rated 99 percent masculine, while this one about Snap’s business model was 94 percent masculine. Even my New Year’s resolutions were determined to be 99 percent masculine. Maybe because I discussed my favorite planar geometry app?