Machine learning is something new under the sun: a technology that builds itself. Right now we have limited algorithms with limited potential, but, if it exists, the Master Algorithm could derive all knowledge in the world from data. Inventing it would be one of the greatest advances in the history of science, speeding up the progress of knowledge across the board and changing the world in ways we can barely begin to imagine.

So says Pedro Domingos, professor of computer science at the University of Washington and author of the book “The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World.” He joined the podcast to discuss his book and the possible utopian and dystopian futures of AI.