The future is AI and Tom O’Reilly is the best person with knowledge

 

Tom O’Reilly,  in his latest provocative book explores the dangers of rogue artificial intelligence bullying our future survival. Our financial markets are already running Artificial intelligence bullying corporate bosses to do bad things and destroy society, The “master Algorithm” of shareholder capitalism persuades companies to pursue short term profit by slashing cost, creating stock options and outsourcing labour. Now, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Uber, have seized these harmful algorithms to shape our future. O’Reilly writes: “ it is this hybrid artificial intelligence of today, that we must bring under control, and  we need to play the game of business as if people matter”.Financial markets and many masters of Wall Street will dismiss the entire idea as neo-Marxist. But we all want to imagine the future  as better economy and society.   His publishers hail him as the “Oracle of the Silicon Valley, but he is one of few  open minded thinkers on the west coast who can make difference. As the founder and chief executive of O’Reilly Media, he has been teaching technology for to generation of Geeks for  over 35 years.

Although, O’Reilly embraces Uber, arguing that it has brought job opportunities to thousands of drivers and is subject to private regulation by its millions of users, but he chastises the company for not putting people at the centre of its business model.

O’Reilly also has answer for a better world, a reformed tax system to reorder financial incentives, a radically improved education system and focus on stuff that matters and the smarter use of technology by governments and civil society.

WTF? What’s The Future and Why It’s Up to Us by Tom O’Reilly, Random House Business $32.99 £14.99.