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horicul's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked it. It touches on the subject I'm used to call "techno religion", where we trust more the machine than we trust us. Good book, easy to understand even if you don't have any idea about Machine Learning.
oldgreyheron's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating and at times worrying insight into the way data about us is collected and processed using artificial intelligence to surround us with customised experiences. The early sections on selling amazed me in terms of the detail that sellers explore to advertise to us.
mollycrow's review against another edition
4.5
Hannah Fry's conversational tone makes for an easily digestible, light-touch, book. Assuming no prior knowledge, she provides brilliantly simple explanations of concepts such as random forests, neural networks, and bayes theorem, allowing you to delve straight into the given examples. She highlights the issues with treating algorithms as an authoritative presence, bringing up important ethical questions, and prompting you to think about how the applications of algorithms may affect your life. In an age of polarised opinions she brings a much needed middle-ground view. Algorithms are useful but we need to understand that they are not perfect - however, neither are humans on their own. We should be striving for improvement, utilising the strengths of humans and algorithms together. One a side note, one thing I found odd was her use of American English, given she is a British author.
goliphant's review against another edition
4.0
The conclusion is a good one: algorithms need to be another data point in a human-made decision.
jo_phina's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
pyonir's review against another edition
4.0
I received a copy of this book for free through a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.
An in-depth look at how algorithms are already prevalent in our society. Topics discussed include current algorithms already in use and how they are used, along with some past algorithms that were used despite glaring flaws. The author asks us to how we'd like to see algorithms used in our every day life within the contexts of crime, justice, medicine, cars, among other topics. Examples are given of how algorithms are used in those topics.
The book is interesting, if not a bit dry. I think it would be an eye opener to those that don't realize how much of world is quantified using databases and algorithms, however, I had at least a general understanding of the topics discussed so that let the air out of the content a bit for me.
An in-depth look at how algorithms are already prevalent in our society. Topics discussed include current algorithms already in use and how they are used, along with some past algorithms that were used despite glaring flaws. The author asks us to how we'd like to see algorithms used in our every day life within the contexts of crime, justice, medicine, cars, among other topics. Examples are given of how algorithms are used in those topics.
The book is interesting, if not a bit dry. I think it would be an eye opener to those that don't realize how much of world is quantified using databases and algorithms, however, I had at least a general understanding of the topics discussed so that let the air out of the content a bit for me.
rosieshu's review against another edition
4.0
Well researched and well written, this is a broad overview of how algorithms are used in various parts of society and the many pitfalls and biases they face. More interesting than it sounds.
tmilligan's review against another edition
4.0
This is "Weapons of Math Destruction", but less pessimistic, with a less-punchy title, and it is British. So, it is British. So when I started, I was skeptical. But frankly, it's probably the better book, a little more even-handed. The end solution to our algorithmic problems is a human-in-the-loop, as they say, combined with making sure we recognize algorithms are not gods, they're just tools which can be poorly made and badly used - or well made or well used. Not a bad place for a book to land, and Fry's writing is plenty accessible.
agnexperience's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great popular-sciency introduction into algorithms and the state of machine learning. I would recommend it to secondary school students and the like. The topics covered and examples given provide a good basic understanding of what algorithms can do for us today and which moral and technical conundrums we still need to solve.
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“using algorithms as a mirror to reflect the real world isn’t always helpful, especially when the mirror is reflecting a present reality that only exists because of centuries of bias.”
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“using algorithms as a mirror to reflect the real world isn’t always helpful, especially when the mirror is reflecting a present reality that only exists because of centuries of bias.”