A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence

Through 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 choices for us: from what products we buy to where we decide to eat from how we consume our news to whom we date and how we find a job. We've even delegated life-and-death decisions to algorithms-judgments once made by doctors pilots and judges. In A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence Kartik Hosanagar surveys the brave new world of algorithmic decision making and reveals the potentially dangerous biases to which they can give rise 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. The way to achieving that is understanding that algorithms often think a lot like their creators-that is like you and me. Hosanagar draws on his own experiences designing algorithms professionally as well as on examples from 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 the fatal accidents of self-driving cars; Microsoft's chatbot Tay which was designed to converse on social media like a teenage girl but instead turned sexist and racist; and even our own common and often frustrating experiences on services like Netflix and Amazon. A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence is an entertaining and provocative look at one of the most important developments of our time and is a practical user's guide to this first wave of practical artificial intelligence. About the Author Kartik Hosanagar is the John C. Hower Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The cofounder of four different ventures he was recognized in 2011 byPoets & Quants as one of "The Best 40 B-School Profs Under the Age of 40." His writing has appeared inWiredForbes andHarvard Business Review and his past consulting and executive education clients include Google American Express Citigroup and SunTrust Bank. Hosanagar earned his PhD in management science and information systems from Carnegie Mellon University.