The Master Algorithm ─ How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World

Under the aegis of machine learning in our data-driven machine age, computers are programming themselves and learning aboutand solvingan extraordinary range of problems, from the mundane to the most daunting. Today it is machine learning programs that enable Amazon and Netflix to predict what users will like, Apple to power Siri’s ability to understand voices, and Google to pilot cars. These programs are already helping us fight the war on cancer and predict the movements of the stock market, and they are making great headway with instant language translation and discovering new laws of nature.

But machine learning is incomplete, and its practitioners across the globe are seeking the most powerful algorithm of all. The Master Algorithm will not be limited to solving particular problems but will be able to learn anything and solve any problem, however difficult, and Pedro Domingos, a trailblazing computer scientist, is at the very forefront of the search for it. With the Master Algorithm in hand and data as its fuel, machine learningessentially the automation of discovery, a kind of scientific method on steroidswill become the most powerful technology humanity has ever devised. And The Master Algorithm will be its bible.

Pedro Domingos is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. The cofounder of the International Machine Learning Society, he lives near Seattle, Washington.