A very clear exploration of what algorithms can and cannot do. And the answer is "it's complicated" however, despite the issues with algorithms, we shouldn't kid ourselves that human decision-making is flawless. Algorithms are biased but so are human beings. The goal should therefore be to make algorithms more transparent and assistant to human decisions rather than abdicate decision-making to algorithms uncritically.
I especially liked this bit: "Whenever you see a story about an algorithm, see if you can swap out any of the buzzwords, like ‘machine learning’, ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘neural network’, and swap in the word ‘magic’. Does everything still make grammatical sense? Is any of the meaning lost? If not, I’d be worried that it’s all nonsense.".
This is a book that gives a lot to think about that is also pleasant to read and full of insightful examples.