Hannah Fry

hello-world

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more

source_10558

By signing up, I confirm that I'm over 16. To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our <a href="/company/about-us/notices/privacy-policy/">Privacy Policy</a>

Keep an eye out for a confirmation in your inbox

Stories, ideas and giveaways to help you spark young imaginations

source_10972

The latest books, activities and tips to help you grow little readers

source_10975

About us

About Us (Header 4)

john-le-carre-a-legacy-of-spies-960-2.jpg

Margaret Atwood

Richard Osman

Malorie Blackman

George Orwell

marian_keyes_mobile_320x200px.png

Elif Shafak

shonfaye

Authors (Header 3)

Books (Header 2)

Company

Features (Header 1)

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

new from the stars of BBC Radio 4

Rutherford and Fry’s Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (Abridged)

How to be a better critical thinker

Think with Pinker

Rutherford and Fry’s Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything

BBC science sleuths solve everyday mysteries

The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry: Series 1-10

The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry: Series 11-15

The Indisputable Existence of Santa Claus

Hello World

It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide

A stylish, thoughtful, and scrupulously fair-minded account of what the software that increasingly governs our lives can and cannot do ... A beautifully accessible guide that leaps lightly from one story to the next without sparing the reader hard questions... deserves a place in the bestseller charts.

With refreshing simplicity, Fry explains what AI, machine learning and complicated algorithms really mean, providing some succinct explanations of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, driverless cars and many other unnerving modern phenomena…This book illustrates why good science writers are essential.

Brilliantly clear...Fry succinctly outlines the ethical issues that beset AI

Hello World is a gem of accessible science writing. With eloquence and charm, Hannah Fry outlines the maths of computer algorithms and explains how they are transforming fields such as health, justice, transport and the arts. She is a wise guide to the benefits - and horrors of our increasingly data-driven world.

Alex Bellos, author of Alex's Adventures in Numberland

Expertly told, wise and with a lightness of touch, Hannah Fry's brilliant exploration of how we live our lives in the age of AI will prompt arguments in pubs and over dinner tables for years to come.

Computers used to be tools, then they were toys, and now they're all around us. You couldn't ask for a better guide to this bewildering new world than Hannah Fry, who fills Hello World with wit, storytelling and superbly clear insight. Bravo!

Tim Harford, author and presenter of The Undercover Economist and more recently Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy.

Hannah Fry's masterful and entertaining call to arms needs to be read by every last human who unthinkingly entrusts our destiny to algorithms. Because, what do you know, the machine-determined future may just work against our best interests, people.

Hello World is an action-packed, quick read during which you will be outraged, provoked, and challenged. The numerous, meticulously researched examples reveal the astonishing new world we're living in, one where secret decisions with ambiguous goals are deciding our individual and collective fates. Welcome to the modern world of big data, you're quite possibly screwed.

Cathy O'Neil, author of Weapons of Math Destruction

Hello World is a brisk and friendly guidebook to the algorithms all around us

Editor's Choice: consistently illuminating

Fascinating and funny. I learned something on every page.

Tom Chivers, science correspondent of Buzzfeed

Hannah Fry is one of the best explainers on the planet. In Hello World she examines the ups and downs of living with algorithms everywhere, online and off, in our homes and workplaces, hospitals and supermarkets. She takes a serious subject and leavens it delightfully with her clear writing and captivating stories, and her trademark sense of humour and fun.

Books of the Year 
This short, sharp book on the power and dangers of algorithms offers one of the clearest explanations of a complex subject

Books of the Year 
A perky, brief introduction to big data and algorithmic crunching…enjoyably sceptical

Books of the Year 
Hannah Fry’s is the most readable, lively and sensible account, neither catastrophising nor pumped with boosterism

Hello World is an illuminating book on the ethical issues around data. Mathematician and presenter Hannah Fry leads us through the not-too-distant worlds of AI politics, healthcare and culture, probing the complex roles of data and algorithms through a range of eye-opening examples. ‘AI’ is a much-used but oft-misunderstood term, and here Fry lays out its impact with ease - 'Best Books of 2018'

She is doing to maths what Brian Cox has done for physics

Hannah Fry is quickly becoming the David Attenborough of maths.

How  to be Human in the Age of the Machine

Would you let an algorithm determine your fate? Hannah Fry lifts the lid on the world of algorithms, examining how they impact our future and whether they really are an improvement on the humans they replace.

Hannah Fry is an Associate Professor in the mathematics of cities from University College London. In her day job she uses mathematical models to study patterns in human behaviour, and has worked with governments, police forces, health analysts and supermarkets. Her TED talks have amassed millions of views and she has fronted television documentaries for the BBC and PBS; she also hosts the long-running science podcast, ‘The Curious Cases of Rutherford &amp; Fry’ with the BBC.

Hello World

Select a format:

Retailers:

Reviews

About the author

Hannah Fry

More from this Author

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter