This is “10 Questions,” a new feature in which we ask tech authors to pull back the covers on their recently released books. Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

In 2015, NBC science and technology correspondent Jacob Ward began to meet researchers who were doing revolutionary work on understanding unconscious human behaviors. He also started looking into tech companies’ pattern-recognition algorithms, which they were using to predict and ultimately shape human behavior. “I realized these two worlds are on a collision course,” Ward said. “What happens if, in a few generations, all this pattern-recognition technology has found and amplified the most irresistible, unconscious human instincts?” From that question comes the Oakland, Calif.–based journalist’s first book, “The Loop: How Technology Is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back” (Hachette). It’s an engrossing study of the scientific research—and inexorable market forces—fueling tech’s prediction machine.