Discussion of Breiman's "Two Cultures": From Two Cultures to One

Abstract

Abstract:We argue that algorithmic models, though powerful and appropriate in some circumstances, rely on just as many tenuous assumptions as parametric probabilistic models; these assumptions, their violations, and the ethical consequences of these violations are simply obscured within a black box. We advocate for a future in which statisticians play a central role in bridging the gap between Breiman's two cultures.