The Strange Power of Algorithms

The Strange Power of Algorithms explores the hidden face of automated systems. Today these programs orchestrate our lives : they recommend information, screen candidates, set insurance premiums and direct police to certain neighbourhoods. Drawing on recent studies (2024-2025), the book shows that technological advances have triggered an explosion in AI use but also in incidents and bias. Through concrete examples-discriminatory practices in insurance and human resources, therapeutic chatbots that encourage dangerous actions, predictive policing violating equal treatment-the author explains how seemingly neutral choices reproduce injustices.
She analyses regulatory responses such as the European AI Act and the U. S. Algorithmic Accountability Act, and proposes ways to combine innovation and equity : bias tests, transparency, human oversight and broad digital education. This punchy, accessible synthesis reveals that algorithmic power is neither mysterious nor inescapable ; it results from human choices and must be regulated to serve the common good.