Book Reviews
THE BIG NINE: How the Tech Titans & Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity
In The Big Nine, Amy Webb visits the AI-driven near-future world to which nine tech titans — and two governments — are together giving birth. More precisely, Webb projects three future scenarios for how AI development is likely to play out. Only one — and clearly the...
AI and Job Loss (Kai-Fu Lee Echoes the Wisdom of Jesus)
There is growing concern about an AI-driven future in which there aren’t enough jobs to go around. Not just a shortage of good jobs, mind you, but a shortage of jobs, period. A swelling chorus of economists and other experts foresee a future in which highly-skilled,...
The Social Media Peril — Part III
Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe, by Roger McNamee Zucked is Roger McNamee’s narrative of a good romance gone bad — except that the behaviors that led to the relationship breakup happen to be global, not personal. McNamee is a long-time, prominent member...
The Social Media Peril — Part II
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, by Shoshana Zuboff Of the three books under review, Shoshana Zuboff’s is easily the most distinctive. In The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at...
The Social Media Peril — Part I
Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy, Siva Vaidhyanathan The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, Shoshana Zuboff Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe, Roger McNamee...
Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots
For those drawn to the ‘sex and robots’ topic of Kate Devlin’s new book, the large majority will come away disappointed. Why? Mostly because Devlin is an academic. Her book is a broad survey of the field (actually, of several fields), often reporting on the work of...