All Hail The Algorithm

There's one thing that touches nearly every aspect of our lives. Whether you're using social media, putting in a health insurance claim or online shopping.

It's algorithms.

My name is Ali Rae and I'm a journalist with Al Jazeera. For the past 6 months, I've been travelling around the world, talking to people about how these invisible codes are increasingly playing an important role in our lives... to an extent that few of us would have ever imagined possible.

Algorithms are as much a part of our modern infrastructure as buildings or roads. So getting to grips with how they work - and to whose benefit - is really important if you want to understand the world we live in today.

This is not a series about the specifics of code or provoking fear that robots are taking over.

It's about the here and now.

How are algorithms affecting our lives? How do they work? Can they be trusted? Are they growing too powerful? Are they manipulating us or are we actually manipulating each other through them?

I have learned a lot from the people that I've spoken with. And the result is a five-part series we're calling All Hail the Algorithm.