Tools and Weapons

The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age

By: Brad Smith, Carol Ann Browne, Bill Gates - foreword

Narrated by: Brad Smith, Carol Ann Browne

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

The instant New York Times best seller

From Microsoft's president and one of the tech industry's broadest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates.

"A colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how technology is both empowering us and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future." (Walter Isaacson)

Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: When your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create. This might seem uncontroversial, but it flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with rapid growth and sometimes on disruption as an end in itself. While sweeping digital transformation holds great promise, we have reached an inflection point. The world has turned information technology into both a powerful tool and a formidable weapon, and new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by even more powerful inventions like artificial intelligence. Companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future, and governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the pace of innovation.

In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne bring us a captivating narrative from the cockpit of one of the world's largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no pre-existing playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of artificial intelligence, big tech's relationship to inequality, and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying "Microsoft memoir", the audiobook pulls back the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company's most crucial recent decision points as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. There are huge ramifications for communities and countries, and Brad Smith provides a thoughtful and urgent contribution to that effort.

©2019 Brad Smith, Carol Ann Browne, Bill Gates (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in technology today." (Bill Gates, from the foreword)

“Taming Big Tech will not be easy, but this book...shows where to start.” (The Financial Times)

“Smith’s book is not the typical vanity project churned out by so many Fortune 500 leaders, the generic tomes on leadership and teamwork stocked at airport bookstores near the neck pillows. Tools and Weapons is a glimpse behind the curtain as Microsoft reckoned with the Snowden revelations, defended against the vicious cyberattacks, and took both the Obama and Trump administrations to court.” (Rolling Stone)

Informative and Relevant

For anyone that is in business, investment or technology, I recommend listening to this book. It is very informative and addresses current issues. Despite a small portion content that was based on opinion, I definitely gained some understanding by listening to this book.

Learn more

A good read to learn about the future. It is worth your time to the idea brought forward.

Excellent Book On The Cutting Edge

This is an important book for technology leaders and world leaders alike. It is the “Inconvenient Truth” of the AI era, and a sobering call to action for all who care about the future of humanity.

Reseña de la historia reciente de la tecnología

Brad plasma los momentos más trascendentes de la historia reciente de las empresas del ramo tecnológico, hace enfasis en las discusiones más trascendentes y reflexiona constantemente entre la dualidad herramienta a favor del desarrollo o arma en contra de la humanidad.

eye opening details about the tech world

this was a great behind the scenes view of the challenges within the digital age. I enjoyed reading about the ins and outside of washington and AI .

A glimpse from where we come to where we go

Past and future perspectives from a former legal Microsoft employee, nice reading good executed book!

Excellent summary of all the dimensions of technology law and a changing world

What I appreciated most about this book was its breakdown of the many complex legal regulatory and global issues and how technology can be used for a good or bad depending on how democracies respond

A must read to know how data will rule the world.

Know and understand what data is and how it will continue to dominate the world of today and tomorrow.
Brad Smith does an excellent job narrating his book making it feel more personable.

Required reading for anyone who lives today

This is a great overview of how technology is affecting us and has affected us. Read this to better understand the complexities involved in managing our technology future.

Nicely done

I was initially reluctant to buy and read this book.

However, this book was surprisingly informative. Insightful. Intriguing. Historical. Foreword-looking. Fluid, with illustrative stories and anecdotes.

I enthusiastically recommend this book.

The fact that Brad Smith narrated his own book was a refreshing bonus.