An Artificial Revolution
ON POWER, POLITICS AND AI
Ivana Bartoletti
Insightful and thought-provoking, AN ARTIFICIAL REVOLUTION is a much-needed primer on the intersection of technology and geopolitical forces shaping the future of civilisation. Ivana Bartoletti’s riveting analysis of the current AI landscape, its potential and its pitfalls, is essential reading for us all.
Think of AI and it conjures up futuristic images of driverless cars and talking humanoid robots; a sci-fi version of a utopian society, some way into the future. But what of now? Most people are unaware that AI is already creating a dystopian present. Its unparalleled transformative potential to reshape our economies, our society and our working lives has accelerated its rapid growth but is taking place without sufficient legal scrutiny, international oversight and public debate. AI currently sees civilisation broken down into algorithms, with policy- making decisions being made by data aggregates and coding theorems. This leaves results open to ‘algorithmic racism’ or ‘algorithmic chauvinism’ – we are sleepwalking into a future written by algorithms which encode racist, sexist and classist biases into our daily lives. Leading AI expert and policymaker Ivana Bartoletti argues it is an issue that requires systemic political and cultural change to productively address.
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“An absorbing and thought-provoking analysis of how technology is transforming our life, and a simple message: workers are far more than something for algorithms to hire or fire. AI holds promises and can make our life better but only if we, citizens, workers and trade unions are involved in the conversation.”
Frances O’Grady, General Secretary, TUC
