A Human Algorithm

How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are

By: Flynn Coleman

Narrated by: Flynn Coleman

A groundbreaking narrative on the urgency of ethically designed AI and a guidebook to reimagining life in the era of intelligent technology

A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are examines the immense impact intelligent technology will have on humanity. These machines, while challenging our personal beliefs and our socio-economic world order, also have the potential to transform our health and well-being, alleviate poverty and suffering, and reveal the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. International human rights attorney Flynn Coleman deftly argues that it is critical we instill values, ethics, and morals into our robots, algorithms, and other forms of AI. Equally important, we need to develop and implement laws, policies, and oversight mechanisms to protect us from tech's insidious threats.

To realize AI's transcendent potential, Coleman advocates for inviting a diverse group of voices to participate in designing our intelligent machines and using our moral imagination to ensure that human rights, empathy, and equity are core principles of emerging technologies. Ultimately, A Human Algorithm is a clarion call for building a more humane future and moving conscientiously into a new frontier of our own design.

©2019 Flynn Coleman (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Good details 2/3s but the last third mileage may vary

This book is enjoyable and you can learn a lot from it. Would recommend.

Why 4 stars?
As someone who is working in the field, feel Flynn Coleman does a decent job explaining the history and ideas behind current AI. The last third (it maybe less but it felt longer) is really focused on more future and preaching AI pitfalls and ethics (a book in itself) ideas and human need to understand their own selves. While I didn’t mind this but think it will vary how you, the reader, will interpret it and drag is a risk.

Disappointed

I had high hopes for this book. I am an artificial intelligence practitioner, in a field where technology and social policy intersect. There are countless books by AI experts about what AI is, ranging from overly broad, misguided, and sensationalist to rigorous, accurate, and practical.

When I saw this book, written by a human rights lawyer, I was excited to read a different take on AI, a human take on AI, with the focus being on the social implications of this technology.

Suffice it to say that I was nearly universally disappointed with A Human Algorithm. Rife with buzzwords, misconceptions/generalizations (some of which were borderline dangerous if taken at face value), and a vacillation between naive optimism to sensational pessimism.

Thus, I'm still searching for a social sciences take on this subject. One that composes itself with the same rigor and laser-focus as, for instance, the similarly titled The Ethical Algorithm. Flynn Coleman has the potential to deliver, but she did not.