About The Book
Beyond the Algorithm
Building AI for the Good of Humanity
Artificial Intelligence is here right now, quietly making big decisions about our lives, our jobs, and our choices. But tech doesn’t have to control us. In this eye-opening book, healthcare tech expert Alexandra Isaacs busts the myth that computers are always fair and objective. She shows us what AI really is. Beyond the Algorithm is an urgent guide for anyone who wants to make sure technology is used to help people, not just to make money for giant corporations.
What You’ll Find Inside
01 Chapter
See how computer programs actually work behind closed doors. You’ll read about shocking real-world examples, like a hiring tool that automatically rejected women and a healthcare system that gave Black patients less medical care. Discover how computer models pick up and repeat our old societal mistakes while pretending to be completely neutral.
02 Chapter
Can a computer program ever be perfectly fair? Take a look at the tricky math problems where fixing one type of unfairness accidentally breaks another. You’ll also learn why facial recognition tools still struggle to read diverse faces accurately and what smart engineers are doing to fix it.
03 Chapter
Doing the right thing has to be baked into the very first step of building technology. Learn how top teams are changing the tech world by bringing in historians and philosophers, checking for human rights risks before launching tools, and actually listening to the communities their apps will affect.
04 Chapter
In today’s world, your private data is worth millions to big tech companies. See how simple things you do online allow companies to guess your deepest secrets, and find out about the new math shields that protect your identity without slowing down innovation.
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Why You Need to Read This Book
Beyond the Algorithm skips the confusing tech talk and tells a deeply human story instead, explaining complicated data science in plain, everyday English. For tech workers, it shows you how to stop looking at just the numbers and start building tools that are genuinely safe and fair for the real world. If you are a student or a curious mind, it beautifully connects the dots between psychology, history, and computers to show how data is actively changing our daily lives.