Big Data: Professional and Ethical Challenges from the Perspective of Actuaries, Statisticians and Data Scientists

• Activity Number: 665 - Big Data: Professional and Ethical Challenges from the Perspective of Actuaries, Statisticians and Data Scientists
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 2, 2018 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Risk Analysis
• Author(s): Edward Frees* and Jim Guszcza* and Victoria Stodden*
• Companies: University of Wisconsin and Deloitte US and University of Illinois
• Keywords: Big Data; Ethics; Actuaries; Data Scientists; Professionalism

Abstract

Big data is becoming pervasive in many domains of research and economic activity. With big data come many challenges for the professionals who depend on that data. Those issues include: the quality of the data, rapid change in the data and in technologies for using that data, privacy rights, prohibited practices, and inequitable application. In some ways similar and some different, actuaries, statisticians and data scientists all face these challenges. Each profession faces these challenges in their own work and when their work requires them to work together, raising the following questions:  in what ways do actuaries, statisticians, and data scientists deal with the professional and ethical challenges posed by big data? and  how do members of the different professions work together and resolve differences over their professional and ethical approaches to big data? In this panel, the Vice-Chair of the American Academy of Actuaries' Big Data Task Force will introduce the recently issued report of the Task Force, and invite reactions to and discussion of its conclusions with actuaries, statisticians and data scientists on the panel.