The Algorithm

How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired and Why We Need to Fight Back Now

By: Hilke Schellmann

Narrated by: Hilke Schellmann

Based on exclusive information from whistleblowers, internal documents, and real world test results, Emmy‑award winning Wall Street Journal contributor Hilke Schellmann delivers a shocking and illuminating expose on the next civil rights issue of our time: how AI has already taken over the workplace and shapes our future.

Hilke Schellmann, is an Emmy‑award winning investigative reporter, Wall Street Journal and Guardian contributor and Journalism Professor at NYU. In The Algorithm, she investigates the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in the world of work. AI is now being used to decide who has access to an education, who gets hired, who gets fired, and who receives a promotion. Drawing on exclusive information from whistleblowers, internal documents and real‑world tests, Schellmann discovers that many of the algorithms making high‑stakes decisions are biased, racist, and do more harm than good. Algorithms are on the brink of dominating our lives and threaten our human future—if we don't fight back.

Schellmann takes readers on a journalistic detective story testing algorithms that have secretly analyzed job candidates' facial expressions and tone of voice. She investigates algorithms that scan our online activity including Twitter and LinkedIn to construct personality profiles à la Cambridge Analytica. Her reporting reveals how employers track the location of their employees, the keystrokes they make, access everything on their screens and, during meetings, analyze group discussions to diagnose problems in a team. Even universities are now using predictive analytics for admission offers and financial aid.

Critic reviews

“In The Algorithm, Hilke Schellmann has done the impossible: she has rendered the baffling ‘Wild West’ of AI immensely readable and approachable. Schellmann gives us the dark and hidden history of tech innovation and the marketplace through the stories of those whose lives have been smashed by its glitches.”—Eliza Griswold, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Amity and Prosperity

“Hilke Schellmann is writing on one of the most important topics of our time—one that impacts all of us more than we realize. The book takes a balanced approach to illuminating the current state of AI in the workplace. It’s not just about incredible benefits or doomsday scenarios, but a real look into the current state of these tools, the incentive systems driving their proliferation, the mixed results they provide, and how we might ensure better outcomes. Highly recommended.”—Ryan Fuller, former vice president for workplace intelligence at Microsoft

“The Algorithm provides a fresh, important perspective on how AI is changing many critical workplace decisions in organizations. Her research is thorough and clever, and exposes the many of problems that AI and its proponents have already created for companies and employees.”—David Futrell, Former Senior Director of Organization Performance at Walmart

“A disturbing investigation into use of AI systems in hiring, firing, and employee surveillance. As Schellmann demonstrates, AI has moved into crucial areas of our lives, but the process has been so fast and silent that its influence is almost invisible. She argues that HR managers should be required to understand how their algorithms work, and there must be greater human input to personnel decisions. This eye-opening book makes it hard to disagree.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Hilke Schellmann was one of the first journalists to understand the dangers of AI passing judgement on workers, and The Algorithm is an absolutely vital book about the risks and harms of the systems already operating—on us—today.”—Clay Shirky, author of Cognitive Surplus and Here Comes Everybody

Content is critical to our current understanding of AI.

A must read for every person who wants to understand AI on a very human level.

fascinating. algorithm made clear

a very academic approach to the ethics of algorithms. Nice read . it's a very good presentation of things to be concerned about

SJW nonsense all the way through

The books starts okay, with some actual facts about how AI and how no one can get a job. But a little before half way through, the author starts up with the usual far-left narrative about diversity, equity, intersectionalism, and the same old paper-thin woke tropes that have been debunked a thousand times and fall apart against the slightest bit of scrutiny (like if the wage gap is real, why don't companies hire only women and save millions?) About 3/4th of the way through, the author seems to have forgotten that this was a book about AI and jobs, as diversity, equity, and the usual stuff was now the entire focus. That's where I just quit listening. It started off with a lot of potential but just went right down a cliff.

Automated Evaluation not Artificial Intelligence

The hiring evaluation tools discussed in this book are not artificial intelligence they are just automated evaluations that try to use predictive models of human behavior. Whether the models are accurate or relevant is a different issue. Models (bad and good) for predicting whether someone is a good fit for a job have been around for a long time. The only difference is now computers are helping with the evaluations, just like robots programmed to run factory equipment. This should not be a surprise to anyone.