The Loop

How Technology Is Creating a World Without Choices and How to Fight Back

By: Jacob Ward

Narrated by: Jacob Ward

This eye-opening narrative journey into the rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence reveals the dangerous ways AI is exploiting the unconscious habits of our minds, and the real threat it poses to humanity: "The best book I have ever read about AI" (New York Times bestselling author Roger McNamee).

Artificial intelligence is going to change the world as we know it. But the real danger isn't some robot that's going to enslave us: It's our own brain. Our brains are constantly making decisions using shortcuts, biases, and hidden processes—and we're using those same techniques to create technology that makes choices for us. In The Loop, award-winning science journalist Jacob Ward reveals how we are poised to build all of our worst instincts into our AIs, creating a narrow loop where each generation has fewer, predetermined, and even dangerous choices.

Taking us on a world tour of the ongoing, real-world experiment of artificial intelligence, The Loop illuminates the dangers of writing dangerous human habits into our machines. From a biometric surveillance state in India that tracks the movements of over a billion people, to a social media control system in China that punishes deviant friendships, to the risky multiple-choice simplicity of automated military action, Ward travels the world speaking with top experts confronting the perils of their research. Each stop reveals how the most obvious patterns in our behavior—patterns an algorithm will use to make decisions about what's best for us—are not the ones we want to perpetuate.

Just as politics, marketing, and finance have all exploited the weaknesses of our human programming, artificial intelligence is poised to use the patterns of our lives to manipulate us. The Loop is call to look at ourselves more clearly—our most creative ideas, our most destructive impulses, the ways we help and hurt one another-so we can put only the best parts of ourselves into the thinking machines we create.

Good enough for a second listen

I thought the personal commitment to the accuracy, research and experience was outstanding. It is good enough to want to listen to it a second time.

Startling Revelations of AI in our lives.

An eye opening look at how Artificial Intelligence is already deeply embedded in every aspect of our lives.
An easy listen and a must read.

The rise of pubic AI makes this the perfect book

This book if worth my subscription and loved the insight. It is a must read for leaders in tech.

Well researched, and extremely important

This book tackles a critically important topic, raising issues that really need part of a far broader discussion. This is a book that universities across the nation should be assigning as required reading.

A MASTERPIECE

Truly a must read for anyone who has ever or will ever use technology today. Well researched and strongly supported, but written in a way that is more accessible and compelling than normal technological discourse. I have already bought 6 copies - one for every family member this Christmas. It’s too important to not share.