A review by anneklein
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence by Kate Crawford

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was phenomenal! My first 5-star read of the year, it articulated a lot of things that I didn't know how to explain, and gave me so much information to supplement my ideas and current knowledge of the topic. I think the thesis of this book, beyond explaining how AI is an extractive technology that affects many more elements of society than we think, is that the power imbalances and harmful design aspects of AI are so embedded into its technological character and purpose that we should simply not use it as a general tool. It is too close to impossible to control and redirect AI towards creating justice in the world; from its very inception, AI has been shaped by and for capitalism, with its extractive logic and growth + profit imperatives. I thought this book was excellent, especially coming from someone who has been researching AI directly for the past 10 years. It's really brave to publish thoughts and reasoning that go counter to what's mainstream in the tech world these days. Each of the chapters detailed an element of the world that AI is involved with it and where it (as an industry) is creating demonstrable physical, mental, social and planetary harm. Starting with the environmental aspects was a really good shout, in particular; I think this is the area where everyone can agree there are big cons to using AI, and so that leads very smoothly into the rest of the chapters. Overall a very good (though depressing) book that I wish everyone using (or considering the use of) AI would read.