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AI Futures
A sober assessment of AI today, and a bold vision for what it could be.
Generative AI tools, released by a handful of rich tech companies, are remaking the economy, society, and human life as we know it. Must their vision be our common destiny?
Leading a forum, acclaimed technology writer Evgeny Morozov—author of To Save Everything, Click Here and host of the podcast A Sense of Rebellion—takes a hard look at Silicon Valley’s grip on our technological imagination. The prevailing wisdom says we can be complacent realists—erecting a few guardrails around Big Tech—or else total refuseniks, rejecting this new technology altogether. That false choice runs roughshod over history, Morozov argues—and with it a more utopian vision of the role technology can play in our lives.
To sketch a better AI future, Morozov takes us back to the past, showing how a radically different way of thinking about artificial intelligence once flourished before losing out to Cold War militarization, consumerism, and venture capital. That more humane vision can still be won, but it requires being clear-eyed about the obstacles. Only by building political power, Morozov concludes, can we wrench control of AI from Silicon Valley and build a technological future that serves us all. Forum respondents include musician Brian Eno, computer scientist and AI pioneer Terry Winograd, free software activist and former digital minister of Taiwan Audrey Tang, technologist Bruce Schneier, writer and software engineer Wendy Liu, and journalist Edward Ongweso Jr..
Also in this Joelle M. Abi-Rached on exploding pagers in Beirut and Israel’s expanding war; Sophia Goodfriend on the military’s embrace of the new AI; Lily Hu on the political theory of algorithms; Alexander Hartley on copyright after ChatGPT; Terry Nguyen on the work of literature in the age of large language models; and more.
Generative AI tools, released by a handful of rich tech companies, are remaking the economy, society, and human life as we know it. Must their vision be our common destiny?
Leading a forum, acclaimed technology writer Evgeny Morozov—author of To Save Everything, Click Here and host of the podcast A Sense of Rebellion—takes a hard look at Silicon Valley’s grip on our technological imagination. The prevailing wisdom says we can be complacent realists—erecting a few guardrails around Big Tech—or else total refuseniks, rejecting this new technology altogether. That false choice runs roughshod over history, Morozov argues—and with it a more utopian vision of the role technology can play in our lives.
To sketch a better AI future, Morozov takes us back to the past, showing how a radically different way of thinking about artificial intelligence once flourished before losing out to Cold War militarization, consumerism, and venture capital. That more humane vision can still be won, but it requires being clear-eyed about the obstacles. Only by building political power, Morozov concludes, can we wrench control of AI from Silicon Valley and build a technological future that serves us all. Forum respondents include musician Brian Eno, computer scientist and AI pioneer Terry Winograd, free software activist and former digital minister of Taiwan Audrey Tang, technologist Bruce Schneier, writer and software engineer Wendy Liu, and journalist Edward Ongweso Jr..
Also in this Joelle M. Abi-Rached on exploding pagers in Beirut and Israel’s expanding war; Sophia Goodfriend on the military’s embrace of the new AI; Lily Hu on the political theory of algorithms; Alexander Hartley on copyright after ChatGPT; Terry Nguyen on the work of literature in the age of large language models; and more.
- GenresArtificial Intelligence
184 pages, Paperback
Published January 28, 2025
2 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Evgeny Morozov
28 books308 followersEvgeny Morozov is a contributing editor to Foreign Policy and runs the magazine's "Net Effect" blog about the Internet's impact on global politics. Morozov has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation, a Yahoo! fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, a fellow at George Soros's Open Society Institute, and the Director of New Media at Transitions Online.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 2, 2025
Are you seeking a book that will rewire your thinking regarding AI? Here it is. This excellent collection of essays from a range of artists, philosophers, scientists, etc, will expand your mind and potentially inspire you.
The first portion of the book is structured in a novel manner - Mr Morozov presents a lengthy essay, followed by responses and reactions to this essay from a diverse range of writers. Mr Morozov then responds to them and finally there are additional essays on a range of AI related subjects - two of which are loosely framed around AI book reviews. Taken together this is a stimulating, challenging and essential examination of critical AI subjects.
From eolithism to teleology you may be scrambling for your thesaurus but that's a fabulous thing. Subjects that are examined and considered include transformative use (ownership and copyright of AI created content, legal rights for holders of source material used in training, etc.), reliance on data gathered from AI monitoring devices used for behavioral adjustments, prompt engineering, autonomous weapons, the history of TSMC and a primer on chip manufacturing, and so much more.
it's important to mention that a number of the essays, Rosen & Abi-Rached especially, that are exceptionally moving. I'm writing about how data accumulation and monitoring has encroached and interfered with being present Rosen writes "Because my father doesn't need me to count his steps. He needs me to walk with him." Indeed.
Meanwhile the field is advancing so rapidly that I found instances where AI had already advanced beyond the described limitations. For example, in detailing how legally, only humans can be authors or copyright holders. The essayist listed that 'AI can't accumulate and spend money, or own property', and in fact recent advanced DeFi have made this possible and inevitable. The question of civil rights and person hood for AI cannot be far in the future...
Upon completing this book the reader can combine and apply the insights and concerns raised, with today's headlines and trends to see a future that is... well, it's not a pretty picture. AI and it's byproducts appear destined to supercharge the centralization of corporate power, inequality and surveillance/control, but despite the dark clouds I appreciate that this book aided me in seeing the world and potential outcomes and trajectories from a slightly more informed position. I'll reference it often to draw from the many excellent (though perhaps idealized) policy solutions and best practices detailed and hopefully improve my attempts to direct better outcomes while simultaneously not being caught completely off guard.
The first portion of the book is structured in a novel manner - Mr Morozov presents a lengthy essay, followed by responses and reactions to this essay from a diverse range of writers. Mr Morozov then responds to them and finally there are additional essays on a range of AI related subjects - two of which are loosely framed around AI book reviews. Taken together this is a stimulating, challenging and essential examination of critical AI subjects.
From eolithism to teleology you may be scrambling for your thesaurus but that's a fabulous thing. Subjects that are examined and considered include transformative use (ownership and copyright of AI created content, legal rights for holders of source material used in training, etc.), reliance on data gathered from AI monitoring devices used for behavioral adjustments, prompt engineering, autonomous weapons, the history of TSMC and a primer on chip manufacturing, and so much more.
it's important to mention that a number of the essays, Rosen & Abi-Rached especially, that are exceptionally moving. I'm writing about how data accumulation and monitoring has encroached and interfered with being present Rosen writes "Because my father doesn't need me to count his steps. He needs me to walk with him." Indeed.
Meanwhile the field is advancing so rapidly that I found instances where AI had already advanced beyond the described limitations. For example, in detailing how legally, only humans can be authors or copyright holders. The essayist listed that 'AI can't accumulate and spend money, or own property', and in fact recent advanced DeFi have made this possible and inevitable. The question of civil rights and person hood for AI cannot be far in the future...
Upon completing this book the reader can combine and apply the insights and concerns raised, with today's headlines and trends to see a future that is... well, it's not a pretty picture. AI and it's byproducts appear destined to supercharge the centralization of corporate power, inequality and surveillance/control, but despite the dark clouds I appreciate that this book aided me in seeing the world and potential outcomes and trajectories from a slightly more informed position. I'll reference it often to draw from the many excellent (though perhaps idealized) policy solutions and best practices detailed and hopefully improve my attempts to direct better outcomes while simultaneously not being caught completely off guard.
March 13, 2025
Boston Review - Fall 2024 Issue.
Nice collection of short essays discussing the advent of AI and LLMs from a variety of mostly critical perspectives. Pleasant enough to read; although one too many of the essays felt like naive liberalism, the sort you only find these days in academia or elite newspapers. The compendium of essays featuring Morozov's keystone essay on the philosophical roots of LLMs was solid.
Nice collection of short essays discussing the advent of AI and LLMs from a variety of mostly critical perspectives. Pleasant enough to read; although one too many of the essays felt like naive liberalism, the sort you only find these days in academia or elite newspapers. The compendium of essays featuring Morozov's keystone essay on the philosophical roots of LLMs was solid.
March 30, 2025
This - on the whole - was an incredible read with such carefully thought and urgent discussions being held throughout. If I could just add that the last piece, the piece by Joelle M. Abi-Rached was one of the best pieces I have read in a while, is an understatement. That piece alone - to me - deserves six stars.
Overall, great read.
Overall, great read.
April 4, 2025
Fall issue of BR. Focused on the democratization of AI and who gets to decide its future. Rlly enjoyed the last two essays specifically the piece on Beirut
April 14, 2025
some of these essays were neo-liberal ass and the second half lost the through line, but the others were intriguing enough
December 21, 2025
Many of the essays there I would reread again sometime in the future
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews