Amazon's HR Gaffe Demonstrates Important Points

Amazon recently proved it isn't infallible when it shut down a human resources system that was systematically biased against women. However, there's more to the story that today's enterprise leaders should know. When people talk about machine learning masters, Amazon is always top-of-mind. For more than two decades, the company's recommendation capabilities have been coveted by others hoping to imitate it. However, even Amazon hasn't mastered machine learning completely, as evidenced by a biased HR system it shut down. What may be surprising to some is the reality of the underlying situation, which is that biased data isn't just a technical problem, it's a business problem.