Want To Understand Recommender Systems? Read These Books.
Want to understand how recommendation algorithms work? Luca Belli, Ph.D., author of Hidden Influences, recommends these books.
Luca Belli's Hidden Influences, published by Manning, explores how recommender systems decide what you see, read, and click on, and how those decisions shape what you think you want. Luca spent years on the front lines of this technology, leading research on algorithmic amplification at Twitter's Machine Learning Ethics team and advising the European Commission on AI regulation. He knows how these systems work from the inside.
It’s written to be accessible to anyone, but with enough depth that practitioners will find it useful too. So if you've ever tried to explain algorithmic amplification, filter bubbles, or why your uncle's YouTube feed looks the way it does, this is the book for you. It covers how recommendation engines actually work, how they're optimised in ways that don't serve users, and what levers exist to change that.
The book isn't out until later this year 2026, but you can preorder now through Manning's Early Access Program (MEAP) and start reading today the chapters that have been reviewed. Plus, you get a discount on the cover price when you buy early.
👉 Preorder and start reading here
While you wait, Luca recommends these essential reads. They’re books that informed his thinking, and that anyone who cares about technology, power, and democracy should have on their shelf. If you’re based in the US, order using our bookshop.org links to help support Internet Exchange.
On how the internet shapes minds and culture:
- Meme Wars by Brian Friedberg, Emily Dreyfuss, and Joan Donovan: how fringe internet culture conquered the mainstream
- The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher: the inside story of how social media rewired our minds and our world
On AI and tech industry power:
- AI Snake Oil by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor: a guide to what AI can and can't actually do
- Chokepoint Capitalism by Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin: how Big Tech captured creative labor markets and what we can do about it
- Enshittification by Cory Doctorow: why everything online suddenly got worse, and what to do about it
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff: the definitive account of how your behavior became a commodity
On democracy and how to protect it:
- On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder: twenty lessons from history that feel urgently relevant today
- How Democracies Die by Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky: a study of democratic backsliding
- How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley: the political playbook of us-vs-them
If you're curious about how we got to a world in which algorithms shape politics. In which big tech platforms and AI extract value from everything, and in which democracy feels increasingly fragile, start with any of these books. Then, preorder Luca's to understand the machinery underneath it all.
We're looking to curate more book lists for our bookshop. If you'd like to contribute one, please get in touch. editor@exchangepoint.tech
Audrey at Global Age Assurance Standards Summit 2026
IX's Audrey Hingle will be in Manchester 14-16 of April at the Global Age Assurance Standards Summit looking for like-minded people to discuss the Draft Age Verification Architecture paper before the IETF from Mallory Knodel, Gianpaolo Scalone and Tom Newton. If you'd like to set up a meeting, email me! editor@exchangepoint.tech
