The Master Algorithm
How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
by Pedro Domingos · first published 2015
58% recommend38% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Accessible, math-light tour of the five machine learning tribes (symbolists, connectionists, Bayesians and others) for general readers; gives a lay of the land beyond deep learning and a view toward general AI.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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. In The Master Algorithm, Pedro Domingos lifts the veil to give us a peek inside the learning machines that power Google, Amazon, and your smartphone. He assembles a blueprint for the future universal learner--the Master Algorithm--and discusses what it will mean for business, science, and society. If data-ism is today's philosophy, this book is its bible.
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…statistical machine learning, which is the approach that underlies most of the cool stuff these days. It's still a great book, but I'd instead recommend a path that focuses on machine learning: - The Master Algorithm: made for a general audience, gives you a lay of the land - Python Machine Learning by Sebastian Raschka: gives you practical skills using python, scikit-learn, numpy, jupyter notebooks, pandas etc.…
on “Ask HN: Best books on AI?” ↗Try Superintelligence - Nick Bostrom (very enjoyable - with a new original thought on every page) OR Pedro Domingos, The Master Algorithm (more difficult to read)
on “The Seven Deadly Sins of AI Predictions” ↗You may enjoy The Master Algorithm: http://www.amazon.com/Master-Algorithm-Ultimate-Learning-Mac...
on “Machine learning works spectacularly well, but mathematicians aren’t sure why” ↗Have you read Pedro Domingos's[1] "The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World"? You should. It directly addresses the idea of blending different fields of AI. [1] http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~pedrod/
on “Escaping the Local Minimum: Where AI Has Been and Where It Needs to Go” ↗Weird. I submitted this yesterday. Must have been the capitalization that got me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10630551 Anyway, just read "The Master Algorithm" by Pedro Domingoes. Fantastic read. The most interesting part to me was his survey of the five tribes of machine learning: symbolists, connectionists, geneticists, Bayesians and analogists. After…
on “Alchemy – Open Source AI” ↗…deep learning is the be-all end-all of AI techniques. It's VERY powerful for a lot of things, but I think DL researchers are aware of things DL doesn't do / isn't good at. Look at the recent book The Master Algorithm which breaks down a lot of what it would take to create a truly general purpose learning algorithm: If you believe the author's thesis, Deep Learning (or something like that) is just one piece of a much…
on “A Deep Learning Dissenter Thinks He Has a More Powerful AI Approach” ↗Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall The Revenge of Geography - Robert D. Kaplan Prisoner's Dilemma - William Poundstone The Master Algorithm - Pedro Domingos Zero-Sum Future - Gideon Rachman The End of History and the Last Man - Francis Fukuyama Entanglement - Amir Aczel
on “Ask HN: What books fundamentally changed the way you think about the world?” ↗No, the field has moved a lot further than that. Did you read the recent Software 2.0 rant by the Tesla AI guy? https://medium.com/@karpathy/software-2-0-a64152b37c35 Other good sources are The Master Algorithm (ML) or The Brain That Changes Itself (neuroscience), the former surveying general capabilities and limitations of various approaches and the later surveying findings from medicine on just how plastic…
on “Discovering a Blue Ocean Idea” ↗…sure about "significantly affected how I think", but here are a couple of the standouts from 2015 that come to mind: The First World War: A Complete History Predictable Revenue Superforecasting The Master Algorithm Natural Born Heroes
on “Ask HN: What book that you read in 2015 significantly affected how you think?” ↗From reading the introduction, it sounds like the author is covering similar ground as the book The Master Algorithm[1] by Pedro Domingos[2]. If you find this interesting, you may find his book interesting as well. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_Algorithm [2]: http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~pedrod/
on “Towards Machine Intelligence by IBM Research” ↗Try Pedro Domingos "The Master Algorithm". Good high level overview of the various "schools" of Machine Learning. Not sure if it identifies which problems are best solved by which approach, though. More the history of how they have taken…
on “An Introduction to Model-Based Machine Learning” ↗Summer is almost over. Just a nit-pick. I'd like to add to this list "The Master Algorithm" by Pedro Domingos
on “Summer Reading List” ↗…domain. So I started to take Andrew Ng's course on Coursera [0]. Highly recommended. I supplement the course with audio and text by listening to the Machine Learning Guide Podcast [1] and by reading The Master Algorithm [2]. In addition, I started to apply my learnings in JavaScript [3]. Even though it's not the best language for ML, it makes it simpler to learn only one new thing and stick to known technologies for…
on “Ask HN: Best way to get started with AI?” ↗…Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker. Peak - Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool You must have heard this a 1000 times - "you can do this", the book is about - "yes, and this is how" The master algorithm - Pedro Domingos Book details out the philosophies of various schools of thought in AI - deep learning, bayesian, genetic, reasoning - in a very simple language. What technology wants - Kevin Kelly Technology…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗…West (https://books.google.com/books?id=bJPZDAAAQBAJ) Covers the kind of fundamentals of science everyone should understand. Life 3.0 - Max Tegmark (https://books.google.com/books?id=2hIcDgAAQBAJ) The Master Algorithm - Pedro Domingos (https://books.google.com/books?id=CPgqCgAAQBAJ) These two go nicely together The Death of Expertise - Thomas M. Nichols (https://books.google.com/books?id=x3TYDQAAQBAJ) Maybe the thing…
on “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” ↗