Books › Atlas of AI
Atlas of AI
288 pages
A sobering, eye-opening journey into the physical mines, sweatshops, and server farms that power the illusion of seamless artificial intelligence.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like pulling back the sleek, minimalist curtain of modern technology to reveal the grinding gears of industry beneath. It is a steady, sobering read that strips away the ethereal metaphors of the cloud and replaces them with the heavy realities of lithium mines, exploited data labelers, and massive energy consumption. The mood is urgent and unsettling, yet deeply illuminating, grounding abstract algorithms in dirt, sweat, and systemic power. The prose is incisive and authoritative, guiding the reader through complex geopolitical and sociological landscapes without ever losing clarity. It will deeply resonate with skeptics of Silicon Valley hype and anyone seeking a rigorous, material understanding of how technology reshapes our physical and political world.
- Mood
- foreboding
- illuminating
- grounded
- unsettling
- Tone
- urgent
- critical
- authoritative
- sobering
- analytical
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- illusion of objectivity · hidden human labor · environmental extraction · systems of power · technological imperialism
- The writing
- Clear, incisive, and rigorously researched, blending academic precision with accessible, compelling arguments.
- The arc
- Moves from a sense of technological abstraction to a sobering, grounded realization of the material and human costs of digital convenience.
- Who it's for
- Readers who want to look past Silicon Valley hype to understand the physical, political, and social realities of modern technology.
Content notes
- exploitation of labor
- environmental degradation
- systemic bias
About the book
The hidden costs of artificial intelligence, from natural resources and labor to privacy and freedom What happens when artificial intelligence saturates political life and depletes the planet? How is AI shaping our understanding of ourselves and our societies? In this book Kate Crawford reveals how this planetary network is fueling a shift toward undemocratic governance and increased inequality. Drawing on more than a decade of research, award-winning science, and technology, Crawford reveals how AI is a technology of extraction: from the energy and minerals needed to build and sustain its infrastructure, to the exploited workers behind "automated" services, to the data AI collects from us. Rather than taking a narrow focus on code and algorithms, Crawford offers us a political and a material perspective on what it takes to make artificial intelligence and where it goes wrong. While technical systems present a veneer of objectivity, they are always systems of power. This is an urgent account of what is at stake as technology companies use artificial intelligence to reshape the world.
Description from Open Library.
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