Will artificial intelligence lead to more social unrest?

A 2018 book by political scientist Virginia Eubanks, Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor, tackles the effects of AI on social issues. From editorial reviews:

“[A] must read…On par with Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed or Matthew Desmond’s Evicted. It’s rigorously researched, phenomenally accessible, and utterly humbling. While there are a lot of important books that touch on the costs and consequences of technology through case studies and well-reasoned logic, this book is the first one that I’ve read that really pulls you into the world of algorithmic decision-making and inequality, like a good ethnography should.” ―danah boyd, author of It’s Complicated

“Eubanks argues that automated systems separate people from resources, classify and criminalize people, and invade privacy―and that these problems will affect everyone eventually, not just the poor. The book’s final chapter offers strategies to dismantle the digital poorhouse.” ―Booklist (starred review)

“This is the single most important book about technology you will read this year. Today everyone is worrying about the Internet’s impact on democracy, but Eubanks shows that the problems facing us run much deeper than “fake news”―automated systems entrench social and economic inequality by design and undermine private and public welfare. Eubanks dives into history and reports from the trenches, helping us better understand the political and digital forces we are up against so we can effectively fight back.” ―Astra Taylor, author of The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age More.

However it turns out, there are going to be the programmers and the programmed and we all want to be more like the former group. Note: The book is currently #4 in Social Services & Welfare at Amazon.

Hat tip: Brendon Dixon

See also: Jay Richards: Is artificial intelligence budding consciousness or just statistical processing? Richards is the author of a forthcoming book (June 19), The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines.