by Brad Smith
First published 2019
Microsoft President Brad Smith argues that technology companies must take responsibility for the world their innovations create. Smith operates from a core principle that when your technology changes the world, you bear responsibility to help address the consequences. This philosophy challenges a tech sector obsessed with rapid growth and disruption for its own sake. Smith and coauthor Carol Ann Browne examine how digital transformation has reached an inflection point where information technology serves as both powerful tool and formidable weapon. They explore thorniest emerging issues including privacy, cybercrime, cyberwar, social media, artificial intelligence ethics, inequality, and threats to democracy. The book provides an insider narrative from one of the world's largest tech companies as it confronts challenges with no preexisting playbook. Smith pulls back the curtain on Microsoft's crucial recent decision points as the company strives to protect technology's promise against real threats it presents. The authors argue that companies creating technology must accept greater responsibility while governments need to regulate technology by moving faster to catch up with innovation pace. Smith offers readers a thoughtful contribution to managing an era defined by artificial intelligence and other powerful inventions.
Genres: business, non-fiction, technology, 21st-century, current-affairs, computer-science
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: insider-narrative, social-commentary
Setting: Microsoft
Period: 21st-century
368 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press