Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

"This is so interesting. Madhumita Murgia is the Financial Times ’ first editor of AI. She writes about the world in which AI is created, and the human consequences. Every chapter has a name like: ‘Your Livelihood,’ ‘Your Freedom,’ ‘Your Safety,’ ‘Your Writings.’ What’s fascinating about it is that you might go into it thinking it will be about the great tech companies and the men who run them. Murgia is, in theory, very positive towards technology, but she’s looking at the dark underbelly of what it means across the world, for those who are what she calls “slaves to the AI revolution,” whose job it is to monitor social media, day in day out, or who are labelling images of roads so that AI can learn what a street sign is and what a piece of tarmac looks like. Or she thinks about the consequences for those affected by the AI movement into creating ‘deep fake’ photographs, and a number of different ways in which AI can be very detrimental in people’s lives. She also looks at some of the ways in which it can be a positive, always from the human side of the story. I came away never wanting to accept cookies again. It’s essential reading."