The Big Nine
Amy Webb
PublicAffairs, $27
Whether or not synthetic intelligence is humankind’s greatest pal or best risk has been extensively debated. We’ve all heard guarantees of device-studded sensible properties conferring unprecedented comfort, in addition to warnings of killer robots. The Huge 9 is a special sort of story in regards to the potential dangers and rewards of AI.
Quite than questioning the character of considering machines, futurist Amy Webb turns a important eye on the people behind the computer systems. With AI’s growth overwhelmingly pushed by 9 tech powerhouses, she asks: Is it attainable for the know-how to serve the perfect pursuits of everybody?
Webb shines a highlight on the Huge 9: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Fb, IBM and Apple (the “G-MAFIA”) in the USA, and Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (the “BAT”) in China. The G-MAFIA is beholden to capitalist market forces; the BAT serves the desire of the Chinese language authorities.
The guide highlights warning indicators of what occurs once we more and more depend on know-how created by companies that prioritize industrial and political pursuits over the general public. These crimson flags include mismanagement of users’ personal data (SN On-line: 4/15/18) in the USA and a state-sanctioned “social credit score” system that displays folks’s habits in China. Webb usually holds the Huge 9 accountable however sometimes pivots to defend the businesses, which she believes are led by folks with good intentions.
Readers who aren’t as satisfied of the Huge 9’s noble intentions might at the least agree with Webb that nice energy begets nice accountability. The second half of the guide particulars three attainable futures via 2069, starting from a best-case state of affairs the place the Huge 9 commit to creating consumer pursuits the No. 1 precedence to a worst-case state of affairs the place the Huge 9 proceed enterprise as typical.
Webb’s assessments are based mostly on analyses of patent filings, coverage briefings, interviews and different sources. She paints vivid footage of how AI may benefit the typical individual, through precision drugs or smarter courting apps, for instance, although she primarily focuses on folks in the USA. Her forecasts are provocative and unsettlingly believable.
Webb closes with a considerably perfunctory name to motion, together with predictable steps like studying the G-MAFIA’s phrases of service. Sadly, The Huge 9 might go away many readers feeling much less like empowered residents and extra like extras in a movie the place tech giants and world leaders play the protagonists. However for anybody who desires a preview of how a couple of tech corporations may reshape society in comparatively brief order, Webb’s account is an accessible, intriguing learn.
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