We Need an FDA For Algorithms - Issue 66: Clockwork 

It's never been quite clear, she says, whether the phrase--which is frequently the entire output of a student's first computer program--is supposed to be attributed to the program, awakening for the first time, or to the programmer, announcing their triumphant first creation. Perhaps for this reason, "Hello World" calls to mind a dialogue between human and machine, one which has never been more relevant than it is today. Her book, called Hello World, published in September, walks us through a rapidly computerizing world. Fry is both optimistic and excited--along with her Ph.D. students at the University of College, London, she has worked on many algorithms herself--and cautious. In conversation and in her book, she issues a call to arms: We need to make algorithms transparent, regulated, and forgiving of the flawed creatures that converse with them.