A Guide to Solving Social Problems with Machine Learning

Predictive technology can improve public policy — if we use it right.

Harvard Business Review Logo December 8, 2016 It’s Sunday night. You’re the deputy mayor of a big city. You sit down to watch a movie and ask Netflix for help. (“Will I like Birdemic? Ishtar? Zoolander 2?”) The Netflix recommendation algorithm predicts what movie you’d like by mining data on millions of previous movie-watchers using sophisticated machine learning tools. And then the next day you go to work and every one of your agencies will make hiring decisions with little idea of which candidates would be good workers; community college students will be largely left to their own devices…

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