https://www.wired.com/story/the-apple-card-didnt-see-genderand-thats-the-problem/ > The Apple credit card, launched in August, ran into major problems last week, when users noticed that it seemed to offer smaller lines of credit to women than to men. The scandal spread on Twitter, with influential techies branding the Apple Card “fucking sexist,” “beyond f’ed up,” and so on. Even Apple’s amiable cofounder, Steve “Woz” Wosniak, wondered, more politely, whether the card might harbor some misogynistic tendencies. It wasn’t long before a Wall Street regulator waded into the timeline of outrage, announcing that it would investigate how the card works to determine if it breaches any financial rules. > The response from Apple just added confusion and suspicion. No one from the company seemed able to describe how the algorithm even worked, let alone justify its output. While Goldman Sachs, the issuing bank for the Apple Card, insisted right away that there wasn’t any gender bias in the algorithm, it failed to offer any proof. Then, finally, Goldman landed on what sounded like an ironclad defense: The algorithm, it said, has been vetted for potential bias by a third-party; moreover, it doesn’t even use gender as an input. How could the bank discriminate if no one ever tells it which customers are women and which are men?