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Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction
Named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly.
A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making
On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience—unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community.
AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it’s also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids’ education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights.
By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will.
The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can’t agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities—or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines.
In Code Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.
Named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly.
A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making
On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience—unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community.
AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it’s also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids’ education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights.
By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will.
The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can’t agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities—or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines.
In Code Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 21, 2024
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October 2, 2024
Čisto drugačno branje od pričakovanega. Pričakovala sem (zdaj ne vem več zakaj, saj je z naslova jasno), da mi bo knjiga dala poljudnoznanstveni vpogled v moderno umetno inteligenco, a sem dobila iz nje čisto nekaj drugega. Tista senca v naslovu pove vse.
Avtorica na podlagi izkušenj ljudi po celem svetu pokaže senčne strani eksplozivno hitrega razvoja aplikacij umetne inteligence (AI) na vse več področjih.
Prekarni delavci v tretjem svetu za zanemarljiv denar "učijo" AI - bolj ko bodo pri tem uspešni, prej bodo ob službo. Drugi prekarni delavci delajo za mastodonte kot npr uber, a se o vseh praktičnih stvareh od razporeditve dela do pritožb pri napačnem (seveda prenizkem) plačilu lahko "pogovarjajo" samo s chatboti, ne s pravimi ljudmi.
Deep fake obdelava slik je dostopna vsakem in veliko je žrtev deep fake maščevalne pornografije.
Veliko AI aplikacij je nepreverjenih ali pa naučenih na neprimernih podatkih (npr preveč homogeni ali premajhna količina podatkov za učenje), kar lahko rezultira v napačnih diagnozah, napačnih aretacijah in obsodbi, neuporabnosti tehnologije. To se, predvidljivo, dogaja predvsem osebam, ki nimajo bele barve kože.
Kje je osebna svoboda, kdo lahko uporabi tvoje osebne podatke in komu jih lahko da naprej?
Zakonodaja ne zmore napredovati tako hitro kot se tehnologija razvija. Vse več smo odvisni od tehnoloških mastodontov.
Toplo priporočam!
Avtorica na podlagi izkušenj ljudi po celem svetu pokaže senčne strani eksplozivno hitrega razvoja aplikacij umetne inteligence (AI) na vse več področjih.
Prekarni delavci v tretjem svetu za zanemarljiv denar "učijo" AI - bolj ko bodo pri tem uspešni, prej bodo ob službo. Drugi prekarni delavci delajo za mastodonte kot npr uber, a se o vseh praktičnih stvareh od razporeditve dela do pritožb pri napačnem (seveda prenizkem) plačilu lahko "pogovarjajo" samo s chatboti, ne s pravimi ljudmi.
Deep fake obdelava slik je dostopna vsakem in veliko je žrtev deep fake maščevalne pornografije.
Veliko AI aplikacij je nepreverjenih ali pa naučenih na neprimernih podatkih (npr preveč homogeni ali premajhna količina podatkov za učenje), kar lahko rezultira v napačnih diagnozah, napačnih aretacijah in obsodbi, neuporabnosti tehnologije. To se, predvidljivo, dogaja predvsem osebam, ki nimajo bele barve kože.
Kje je osebna svoboda, kdo lahko uporabi tvoje osebne podatke in komu jih lahko da naprej?
Zakonodaja ne zmore napredovati tako hitro kot se tehnologija razvija. Vse več smo odvisni od tehnoloških mastodontov.
Toplo priporočam!
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