Book Reviews
TOOLS AND WEAPONS: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age
Leaders in both tech and government will be talking about this book, and grappling with it, for a very long time. And it often surprises — not because its opinions are startling, but because hearing them from a tech leader is so uncommon.
THE MIND AND THE MACHINE: What it Means to Be Human, and Why It Matters
What does it mean to be human? Or, put more narrowly in light of the advances of AI and neuroscience, should we think of humans as simply a complex form of biochemical computer? Is the human mind, including its sense of self-consciousness, really nothing more than the...
DEEP MEDICINE: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again
It turns out that schizophrenia is not just a medical condition, it’s also an apt way to think about Eric Topol’s new book, DEEP MEDICINE: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again. Schizophrenia, after all, is characterized by inconsistent and...
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...