--- title: Finding Racism in Machines description: Why BMI is a bad way to measure health, how big data can be racist, why China is voting Trump and more. canonical: https://time.com/4209215/can-computers-be-racist/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-05T17:00:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:27.910Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Computers Can Be Racist og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4209215/can-computers-be-racist/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Computers Can Be Racist twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Finding Racism in Machines > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 5, 2016 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Feb 5, 2016 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Can computers — and the big data they deliver — be racist?**](http://www.fordfoundation.org/ideas/equals-change-blog/posts/can-computers-be-racist-big-data-inequality-and-discrimination/) By Michael Brennan at the Ford Foundation **2\.** [**You might not be overweight. Here’s why BMI — body mass index — is a bad yardstick for health.**](http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2016/016429/flawed-measure) By Julie Cohen at the University of Santa Barbara Current **3\.** [**If China could pick the next U.S. president, Donald Trump would win big.**](http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/if-chinese-could-vote-in-us-presidential-primaries-who-would-they-choose/) By David Volodzko in The Diplomat **4\.** [**Did policy failures lead to the opioid epidemic?**](http://www.urban.org/urban-wire/are-policy-failures-behind-opioid-epidemic?) By Laudan Y. Aron at the Urban Institute **5\.** [**Our fight in Afghanistan might be what endless war looks like.**](http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2016/02/03/tough-choices-in-afghanistan/) By Robert M. Hathaway at the Council on Foreign Relations  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4209215/can-computers-be-racist/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4209215/can-computers-be-racist/"},"headline":"Finding Racism in Machines","datePublished":"2016-02-05T17:00:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:27.910Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4209215/can-computers-be-racist/","keywords":["Innovation","Afghanistan","China","Racism","weight","health","Opioid","trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4209215/can-computers-be-racist/","name":"Finding Racism in Machines"}}]}] ```