The Equality Machine
Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future
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The Equality Machine
Narrated by:
Dominique Dibbell
Buy Now for £12.99
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Narrated by:
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Dominique Dibbell
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By:
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Orly Lobel
About this listen
Much has been written about the challenges tech presents to equality and democracy. But we can either criticize big data and automation or steer it to do better. Lobel makes a compelling argument that while we cannot stop technological development, we can direct its course according to our most fundamental values.
With provocative insights in every chapter, Lobel masterfully shows that digital technology frequently has a comparative advantage over humans in detecting discrimination, correcting historical exclusions, subverting long-standing stereotypes, and addressing the world’s thorniest problems: climate, poverty, injustice, literacy, accessibility, speech, health, and safety.
Lobel's vivid examples—from labor markets to dating markets—provide powerful evidence for how we can harness technology for good. The book’s incisive analysis and elegant storytelling will change the debate about technology and restore human agency over our values.
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Critic reviews
“A timely book on how we can create technologies that fight bias instead of intensifying it. Orly Lobel offers a compelling vision for a digital future that’s fairer to all of us.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife
“What if technology could help? Two decades ago, that idea seemed obvious. Today, it seems impossible. But in this beautifully written and wide-ranging work, Orly Lobel shows how a smart architecting of our technical environment can make us better humans, in a healthier environment. This is critical thinking and insight when — and where — we need it most.”—Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard University
“With great computing power comes great responsibility. The Equality Machine shows how we can direct AI for good and create a society in which our lives are not limited by gender, race, sexuality, age, geography, or ability. As always, Orly Lobel gives us a crystal-clear, front-row seat to our evolving digital realities. A must-read!”—Jonah Berger, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and author of The Catalyst and Contagious
“Artificial intelligence in particular and technology in general are changing almost every aspect of the human experience. Can smarter and smarter machines make life better and better—and not just for the few and the privileged, but for everyone? Lobel offers a compelling, inspiring, and actionable argument that the answer is yes.”—Angela Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania, chief scientist, the Character Labor, and author of Grit
“Who should we believe? The glass-half-full people who tell us that AI is going to bring about the next stage of human development, or the glass-half-empty people who tell us that this will be the end of all that is good about humanity? What Lobel shows in The Equality Machine is that the answer is up to us. We can implement AI in ways that deepen our challenges, and we can implement this technology in ways that both fix some of our existing problems and promote our human agenda.”—Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational
“The Equality Machine offers a hard-headed yet hopeful analysis of how digitization and artificial intelligence can reduce discrimination and promote opportunity. By rejecting both utopian dreams and dystopian nightmares, Lobel shows that it’s up to us to enlist these new technologies as forces for good and engines for progressive values. One of our sharpest legal minds has produced an utterly compelling book.”—Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Power of Regret, When, and Drive
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