The Last Algorithm: How AI Outgrew Its Makers

The Last Algorithm is a comprehensive exploration of how artificial intelligence has evolved from simple computational tools into complex systems that increasingly operate beyond human understanding and control. More than a technical history, this book is a cultural, ethical, and philosophical investigation into the algorithms that are reshaping our world

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The journey begins with the origins of AI, tracing its evolution from symbolic logic and expert systems to machine learning, deep learning, and today’s massive foundation models. Readers are introduced to milestone breakthroughs such as the perceptron, backpropagation, and the rise of neural networks, showing how each technological leap reduced the amount of explicit human programming required. Alongside technical progress came profound changes in society: the internet, smartphones, and social media transformed code into a cultural force that now mediates nearly every human interaction

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The book explains how algorithms have achieved functional outgrowth, surpassing humans at tasks like chess, image recognition, and protein folding; comprehensional outgrowth, becoming too complex for their creators to fully explain; and governance outgrowth, raising fears of systems escaping meaningful oversight. It explores the role of Silicon Valley, the concentration of AI power in a few companies, the myths of perfect algorithms, and the cultural biases embedded in code.

Other chapters reveal how AI surprises us—through emergent behaviors, adversarial vulnerabilities, and unintended consequences like polarization from recommendation systems. The book also examines ownership disputes, blueprint biases, and the political economy of AI, highlighting how concentrated power and human blind spots amplify risks.

Ultimately, The Last Algorithm is not a tale of science fiction rebellion but of subtle, structural shifts—where systems evolve in directions shaped more by data, incentives, and feedback loops than by deliberate human g