The Loop

“The Loop is a strong entry in the canon…AI represents perhaps the ultimate shiny object. But Ward penetrates to the dark vacancy at its core.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“The best book I have ever read about AI.” – Roger McNamee, New York Times bestselling author of Zucked

A robot mediator for divorced couples. Software that tells police where to look for crime before it happens. Algorithms that finish half-written symphonies. Artificial intelligence is beginning to pick up patterns in our behavior that we’re not even conscious of, and as companies use it to reflect our unconscious selves back at us, we may not like what we’re about to become. In The Loop: How Technology is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back, NBC News technology correspondent Jacob Ward melds the latest behavioral science with reporting from the frontiers of machine learning and activism to write what reviewers are calling “fascinating and unsettling,” and “a brilliant look at how A.I. turned to the dark side.”

Here’s my recent discussion about the book with DJ Patil at the Commonwealth Club:

Meanwhile, here’s a few other things I’ve written.

“The Loop is a strong entry in the canon…AI represents perhaps the ultimate shiny object. But Ward penetrates to the dark vacancy at its core.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“The best book I have ever read about AI.” – Roger McNamee, New York Times bestselling author of Zucked

The New York Times Magazine

The New Yorker

Popular Science

Wired

ReadyMade

Architecture

Metropolis

The Industry Standard