Bots – automated software applications programmed to perform tasks online – have become a feature of our everyday lives, from helping us navigate online systems to assisting us with online shopping. Yet, despite enabling internet users, bots are increasingly associated with disinformation and concerning political intervention.In this ground-breaking book, Monaco and Woolley offer the first comprehensive overview of the history of bots, tracing their varied applications throughout t...

A software developer’s misadventures in computer programming, machine learning, and artificial intelligence reveal why we should never assume technology always gets it right.In Artificial Unintelligence, Meredith Broussard argues that our collective enthusiasm for applying computer technology to every aspect of life has resulted in a tremendous amount of poorly designed systems. We are so eager to do everything digitally—hiring, driving, paying bills, even...

"This colorful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective. Through the lives of Geoff Hinton and other major players, Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling."—Walter Isaacson, author of The Code BreakerRecipient of starred reviews in both Kirkus and Library JournalTHE UNTOLD TECH STORY OF OUR TIMEWhat does it mean to be smart? To be human? W...

Over the coming decades, Artificial Intelligence will profoundly impact the way we live, work, wage war, play, seek a mate, educate our young, and care for our elderly. It is likely to greatly increase our aggregate wealth, but it will also upend our labor markets, reshuffle our social order, and strain our private and public institutions. Eventually it may alter how we see our place in the universe, as machines pursue goals independent of their creators and outperform us in domains previo...

An exploration of the way videogames mount arguments and make expressive statements about the world that analyzes their unique persuasive power in terms of their computational properties.Videogames are an expressive medium, and a persuasive medium; they represent how real and imagined systems work, and they invite players to interact with those systems and form judgments about them. In this innovative analysis, Ian Bogost examines the way videogames mount arguments...

How we can evade, protest, and sabotage today's pervasive digital surveillance by deploying more data, not less—and why we should.With Obfuscation, Finn Brunton and Helen Nissenbaum mean to start a revolution. They are calling us not to the barricades but to our computers, offering us ways to fight today's pervasive digital surveillance—the collection of our data by governments, corporations, advertisers, and hackers. To the toolkit of privacy protecting t...

Techno-utopianism is dead: Now is the time to pay attention to the inequality, marginalization, and biases woven into our technological systems.This book sounds an alarm: after decades of being lulled into complacency by narratives of technological utopianism and neutrality, people are waking up to the large-scale consequences of Silicon Valley-led technophilia. This book trains a spotlight on the inequality, marginalization, and biases in our technological systems...

Leading technologists, historians, and journalists reveal the stories behind the computer coding that touches all aspects of life—for better or worseFew of us give much thought to computer code or how it comes to be. The very word “code” makes it sound immutable or even inevitable. “You Are Not Expected to Understand This” demonstrates that, far from being preordained, computer code is the result of very human decisions, ones we all live with when we use s...

The New York Times–bestselling author of Rise of the Robots shows what happens as AI takes over our livesIf you have a smartphone, you have AI in your pocket. AI is impossible to avoid online. And it has already changed everything from how doctors diagnose disease to how you interact with friends or read the news. But in Rule of the Robots, Martin Ford argues that the true revolution is yet to come.In this sequel to his prescient ...

**An NPR 2023 "Books We Love" PickOne of the Next Big Idea Club's Must-Read Books"An invaluable primer to arguably the most important driver of change for our future." —P. W. Singer, author of Burn-InAn award-winning defense expert tells the story of today’s great power rivalry—the struggle to control artificial intelligence.**A new industrial revolution has begun. Like mechanization or electricity before it, artificial intelligence will tou...

Imagine a world where you pull on a headset, and everything you need is right there – in full, 3D virtual reality.Whether shopping, working, or playing a sport, contacting your friends or visiting a museum, you can do it all sitting right where you are, and it will look and feel almost like you're doing it for real.Welcome to the metaverse.From the award winning writer Gideon Burrows comes this easy to understand guide to everything...

How the autonomous digital forces jolting our lives – as uncontrollable as the weather and plate tectonics – are transforming life, society, culture, and politics.David Auerbach’s exploration of the phenomenon he has identified as the meganet begins with a simple, startling revelation: There is no hand on the tiller of some of the largest global digital forces that influence our daily lives: from corporate sites such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Instagram,...