[scikit-learn] Replacing the Boston Housing Prices dataset

[Andreas Mueller]

Hi Tony.

I don't think it's a good idea to remove the dataset, given how many 
tutorials and examples rely on it.
I also don't think it's a good idea to ignore racial discrimination, 
which I guess this feature is trying to capture.

I was recently asked to remove an excerpt from a dataset from my slide, 
as it was "too racist". It was randomly sampled
data from the adult census dataset. Unfortunately, economics in the US 
are not color blind (yet), and the reality is racist.
I haven't done an in-depth analysis on whether this feature is actually 
informative, but I don't think your analysis is conclusive.

Including ethnicity in data actually allows us to ensure "fairness" in 
certain decision making processes.
Without collecting this data, it would be impossible to ensure automatic 
decisions are not influenced
by past human biases. Arguably that's not what the authors of this 
dataset are doing.

Check out http://www.fatml.org/ for more on fairness in machine learning 
and data science.

Cheers,
Andy


On 07/06/2017 12:05 PM, G Reina wrote:
> I'd like to request that the "Boston Housing Prices" dataset in 
> sklearn (sklearn.datasets.load_boston) be replaced with the "Ames 
> Housing Prices" dataset 
> (https://ww2.amstat.org/publications/jse/v19n3/decock.pdf). I am 
> willing to submit the code change if the developers agree.
>
> The Boston dataset has the feature "Bk is the proportion of blacks in 
> town". It is an incredibly racist "feature" to include in any dataset. 
> I think is beneath us as data scientists.
>
> I submit that the Ames dataset is a viable alternative for learning 
> regression. The author has shown that the dataset is a more robust 
> replacement for Boston. Ames is a 2011 regression dataset on housing 
> prices and has more than 5 times the amount of training examples with 
> over 7 times as many features (none of which are morally questionable).
>
> I welcome the community's thoughts on the matter.
>
> Thanks.
> -Tony
>
> Here's an article I wrote on the Boston dataset:
> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hidden-racism-data-science-g-anthony-reina?trk=v-feed&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3Bmu67f2GSzj5xHMpSD6M00A%3D%3D
>
>
>
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