A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence

A Wharton professor and tech entrepreneur examines how algorithms and artificial intelligence are starting to run every aspect of our lives and how we can shape the way they impact usThrough the technology embedded in almost every major tech platform and every web-enabled device algorithms and the artificial intelligence that underlies them make a staggering number of everyday decisions for us from what products we buy to where we decide to eat to how we consume our news to whom we date and how we find a job. Weve even delegated life-and-death decisions to algorithms--decisions once made by doctors pilots and judges. In his new book Kartik Hosanagar surveys the brave new world of algorithmic decision-making and reveals the potentially dangerous biases they can give rise to as they increasingly run our lives. He makes the compelling case that we need to arm ourselves with a better deeper more nuanced understanding of the phenomenon of algorithmic thinking. And he gives us a route in pointing out that algorithms often think a lot like their creators--that is like you and me.Hosanagar draws on his experiences designing algorithms professionally--as well as on history computer science and psychology--to explore how algorithms work and why they occasionally go rogue what drives our trust in them and the many ramifications of algorithmic decision-making. He examines episodes like Microsofts chatbot Tay which was designed to converse on social media like a teenage girl but instead turned sexist and racist; the fatal accidents of self-driving cars; and even our own common and often frustrating experiences on services like Netflix and Amazon. A Humans Guide to Machine Intelligence is an entertaining and provocative look at one of the most important developments of our time and a practical users guide to this first wave of practical artificial intelligence.