Technology & Society

Co-founder of the pioneering artificial intelligence company DeepMind and current CEO of Microsoft AI Mustafa Suleyman warns of the unprecedented risks that AI and other fast-developing technologies pose to global order, and tells us how we might contain them while we have the chance.

Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers - those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks....

Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in a noisy world. Author Cal Newport introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives....

Computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor reveal what you need to know about AI—and how to defend yourself against bogus AI claims and products.

Although big data can set us free and enhance our lives, it has the potential to create an underclass and a totalitarian state. With big data ever present, you can’t afford to ignore it. In this book, acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg brings big data to life....

Today's "machine-learning" systems, trained by data, are so effective that we've invited them to see and hear for us - and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases.

No matter what you do for a living, how much time your apps save you, or how much entertainment your phone brings, it is possible to unplug—and find an even better life on the other side.

Scary Smart is an insider look at the future not only of technology and AI, but of our species, together with an accessible blueprint for what we can do to safeguard ourselves, those we love and the planet itself....

A reflective, original invitation to recover and cultivate the human experiences that have atrophied in our virtual world.

In November 2022, a webpage was posted online with a simple text box. It was ChatGPT, and was unlike any app people had used before. Parmy Olson uses her experience covering technology to bring to light the exploitation of the greatest invention in human history, and how it will impact us all.

For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best....

A former gamer and Harvard-trained psychiatrist offers a proven, tested plan to help parents define, set, and reinforce healthy boundaries around video games and help kids who have developed an addiction to gaming....

Three of the world’s most accomplished and deep thinkers come together to explore Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the way it is transforming human society - and what this technology means for us all....

Interweaving stories about the science and the people behind it, Artificial Intelligence brims with clear-sighted, captivating, and approachable accounts of the most interesting and provocative modern work in AI, flavored with Mitchell’s humor and personal observations....

The Opt-Out Family unveils compelling research and startling insights from Erin Loechner's experiences as a social media trailblazer and former influencer, as well as practical and creative ways to transform your family's relationship with today's ever-evolving technology....

In this explosive yet practical book, Kevin Mitnick illustrates what is happening without your knowledge - and he teaches you "the art of invisibility"....

Les histoires nous ont réunis. Les livres ont diffusé nos idées et nos mythologies. Internet nous a promis le savoir infini. Les algorithmes ont découvert nos secrets

Leading futurist and OneShared.World founder Jamie Metzl explores how genome sequencing, gene editing, artificial intelligence, and other technologies are not only changing our lives, but catalyzing each other in radical and accelerating ways.

In his bestselling first book, Eric Siegel explained how machine learning works. Now, in The AI Playbook, he shows how to capitalize on it.

A renowned computer scientist seeks the distinctive human quality that will prevail against artificial intelligence.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are the four most influential companies on the planet. Just about everyone thinks they know how they got there. They're wrong....

From trendy restaurants to city grids, to TikTok and Netflix feeds the world round, algorithmic recommendations dictate our experiences and choices....

Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is neither a hand-wringing narrative of danger and decline nor a digital fairy tale. It offers a reasoned and evocative examination of the contests over the next chapter of capitalism that will decide the meaning of information civilization....

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has dramatically empowered people in all walks of life, from artists to business executives to policymakers. But as the technology becomes more powerful and more ubiquitous, it is giving rise to urgent questions about the future of humanity.

In The Extinction of Experience, Christine Rosen investigates the cultural and emotional shifts that accompany our embrace of technology. In warm, philosophical prose, Rosen reveals key human experiences at risk of going extinct, including face-to-face communication, sense of place, authentic emotion, and even boredom. Considering cultural trends, like TikTok challenges and mukbang, and politically unsettling phenomena, like sociometric trackers and online conspiracy culture, Rosen exposes an unprecedented shift in the human condition, one that habituates us to alienation and control.

Confused about AI and worried about what it means for your future and the future of the world? You’re not alone. AI is everywhere—and few things are surrounded by so much hype, misinformation, and misunderstanding. In AI Snake Oil, computer scientists Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor cut through the confusion to give you an essential understanding of how AI works, why it often doesn’t, where it might be useful or harmful, and when you should suspect that companies are using AI hype to sell AI snake oil—products that don’t work, and probably never will.

In the spring of 2021, Hannah Brencher found herself depleted and exhausted—and she knew the culprit was her constantly plugged-in lifestyle. Like so many of us, Hannah had been turning to her phone to cope with life in a time of isolation and uncertainty. Those coping mechanisms had calcified into habits she didn't know how to break. Sound familiar? That's when the nudge happened. Turn off your phone and keep turning off your phone. In The Unplugged Hours, Hannah demonstrates how the act of powering down changed her entire life.

If artificial intelligence takes over decision-making what, then, is unique and irreplaceable about human intelligence? The Atomic Human is a journey of discovery to the core of what it is to be human, in search of the qualities that cannot be replaced by the machine. Neil Lawrence brings a timely, fresh perspective to this new era, recounting his personal journey to understand the riddle of intelligence. By contrasting our own intelligence with the capabilities of machine intelligence through history, The Atomic Human reveals the technical origins, capabilities, and limitations of AI systems.

In November 2022, a webpage was posted online with a simple text box. It was ChatGPT, and was unlike any app people had used before. It was more human than a customer service agent, more convenient than a Google search. Behind the scenes, battles for control and prestige between the world’s two leading AI firms, OpenAI and DeepMind, who now steers Google's AI efforts, has remained elusive—until now.

As advances in AI spark fear and confusion, The Mind’s Mirror reminds us that in spite of the very real and pressing challenges, AI is a force with enormous potential to improve human life. Computer scientist and AI researcher Daniela Rus, along with science writer Gregory Mone, offers an expert perspective as a leader in the field who has witnessed many technological hype cycles. Rus and Mone illustrate the ways in which AI can help us become more productive, knowledgeable, creative, insightful, and even empathetic, as well as the many risks associated with misuse.

"We are infinitely rich, yet we mess about with penny-in-the-slot machines," writes Brian W. Aldiss in this autobiographical work written over the course of one month. From his Oxfordshire home, he ruminates on dreams, education, the role of technology in our lives, the rise and function of science fiction, and a variety of other topics. The Shape of Further Things is a window into the life and mind of a Science Fiction Grand Master.

Are you searching for ways to enhance your personal growth but feel overwhelmed by the abundance of information out there? Do you find yourself wishing for tools that can streamline your daily tasks and make life simpler? "Artificial Intelligence in Everyday Life Simplified" understands your struggles and offers practical solutions to these common challenges. This book is designed to demystify AI and show you how to leverage its power to improve various aspects of your life.

Rosenberger brings together ideas from philosophy and cognitive science to leverage a postphenomenological perspective that reveals how our smartphones make us such bad drivers. Reviewing decades of empirical studies in cognitive science, he shows that we have developed habits of perception regarding our compulsive technology use—habits that may wrest our attention away from the road.

Two of the biggest design problems in Artificial Intelligence are how to build robots that behave in line with human values and how to stop them ever going rogue. One under-explored solution to these alignment and control problems might be to examine how these are already addressed in the design of humans. Robot Souls looks at developments in AI and reviews the emergence of ideas of consciousness and the soul. It places our 'junk code' in this context and argues that it is time to foreground that code, and to use it to look again at how we are programming AI.