The Apple Card Is Sexist. Blaming the Algorithm Is Proof.
Apple’s algorithm seems to be granting women a fraction of their spouses’ borrowing limits. It’s a troubling example of machine learning’s deficiencies.
Blame the algo.
Photographer: Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images North AmericaHyped as the biggest credit-card innovation in 50 years, the Apple Card is starting to look more like something from the 1960s and 1970s: Women are allegedly being granted a fraction of their spouses’ borrowing limits. It’s another troubling example of the deficiencies of machine learning.
Just months after its launch, New York regulators say they’re investigating Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the bank behind the card, and the algorithm that it uses to determine credit-worthiness. Goldman denies any discrimination but that hasn’t stopped Apple Inc.’s co-founder Steve Wozniak from calling for the U.S. government to get involved. “We don’t have transparency on how these companies set these things up and operate,” he told Bloomberg News.