The master algorithm: how the quest for the ultimate learning machine will remake our world

Algorithms increasingly run our lives. They find books, movies, jobs, and dates for us, manage our investments, and discover new drugs.

More and more, these algorithms work by learning from the trails of data we leave in our newly digital world.

Like curious children, they observe us, imitate, and experiment. And in the world's top research labs and universities, the race is on to invent the ultimate learning algorithm: one capable of discovering any knowledge from data, and doing anything we want, before we even ask.

Here, Pedro Domingos, one of the field's leading lights, lifts the veil to give us a peek inside the learning machines that power Google, Amazon, and your smartphone.

He charts a course through machine learning's five major schools of thought, showing how they turn ideas from neuroscience, evolution, psychology, physics, and statistics into algorithms ready to serve you.