The world is full of AI. Our searches, our social media inboxes, the apps on our phones, and our bookshelves. This becomes overwhelming if we are to try to separate the good stuff from the bad stuff, but here is a recommendation to put on top of your “to read” pile.
Madhumita Murga, an editor for the Financial Times, published Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI in 2024. This is a slightly disturbing book that must be read by everyone, or al least by those who are concerned with their livelihood, body, identity, health, freedom, safety net, boss, rights, future, and society. Those nouns reflect the chapter titles of the book.
Murga has gone to great lengths to detail how AI in influencing all of these aspects of life. The stories she shares are from different continents and this reflects the global influences of technology. It is disturbing to read the stories as those AI technologies developed in areas with authoritarian governments become available for all to use.
One thing that becomes obvious when reading this book is that, despite the concern so many have due to generative AI and large language models, many of the technologies which cast the shadows in which we live were well in development prior to the emergence of LLM as a consumer technology. One other thing that becomes obvious is that these artificial intelligence tools are largely beyond our control. When we find problems with them, and we attempt to resolve them, we cannot. If we can gain access to the those who can change it, which we are unlikely to be able to do, they are not going to change it.
The book is gloomy, but it deserves to be so, especially given the stories. We hear stories of marginalized individuals who have been dealing with terrible situations that have resulted from AI and its influence on people who seek to control us. While the content are gloomy, the writing is not; the text is clear and made me think I was listening to a lecture—not that kind, but the kind where the lecturer tells a compelling story with compassion for the subjects and respect for the audience.
The epilogue of the book includes 10 question Murga recommends we ask when we are faced with AI in our work. To me, this is the ethical framework we must adopt as we (and I speak of educators here) use AI to teach our lessons, to help our students learn, and to frame what is important to us.
Seriously, go buy the book or get it from the library. Read it and pass it on to another