The Master Algorithm

A helpful book more on the introductory/educational side rather than the analytical side of machine learning. Walter Isaacson’s front page quip is correct: this is a good book for those who still need to have machine learning “demystified” for them (I am certainly someone who still benefits from a refresher on even the most basic components of the subject).

This book unmistakably, though, has the optimistic viewpoint of the early 2010’s, and precedes the “tech-lash” that we are now experiencing in 2020. It is a bit light on the significant moral conundrums we face even with basic applications of narrow artificial intelligence (let alone its AGI analogs), and strikes a tone that some today might find presumptuous about the world AI will create. But then again, that wasn’t Domingos’ core goal.

This book delivers on laying the basic groundwork, to a non-technical audience, of machine learning’s developmental history, its present applications, how the FANG companies and the startup landscape is sequentially adopting those applications, and the elusive hunt for a general artificial intelligence.