What You Don’t Know: AI’s Unseen Influence on Your Life and How to Take Back Control

A Big Tech exec pulls back the curtain on the unseen forces at work labeling you, tracking you, and triggering you—deciding your employability, quality of life, and even whether you should live or die—because what you don’t know about them could actually hurt you.

You are probably not aware, because of their hidden nature, but Artificial Intelligence systems are all around you affecting some of the biggest areas of your life—jobs, loans, kids, mental health, relationships, freedoms, and even healthcare decisions that can determine if you live or die. As an executive working in AI at one of the largest, most sophisticated tech companies on the planet, Cortnie Abercrombie saw firsthand how the corporate executives and data science teams of the Fortune 500 think about and develop AI systems. This gave her a unique perspective that would result in a calling to leave her job so she could reveal to the public the sobering realities behind AI without any constraints or Public-Relations candy-coating from corporate America. In this book she makes it easy to understand how AI works and unveils what companies are doing with AI that can impact you the most. Most importantly, she offers practical advice on what you can do about it today and the change you should demand for the future.

This book drops the hype, over-exaggerations, and big scientific terms and addresses the pressing questions that non-insiders want answered:

• How does AI work (in words you don’t need a PhD to understand)?
• How can AI affect my job, replace me, or prevent my hire?
• Is AI involved in life-or-death decisions in healthcare?
• Could my digital accounts or home network be hacked because of my AI-based Smart TV, coffeemaker, or robot vacuum?
• How does AI know so much about me, what does it know, and can it be used against me?
• Can it manipulate people to do things they wouldn’t normally?
• Could AI help push my teen to self-harm or suicide?
• Is fake news a real thing?
• How can AI affect my rights and liberties? Does facial recognition play a part?
• What can I do to protect myself, my kids, and my grandkids?
• What should I demand from educators, lawmakers, and corporations to ensure AI is used in ways that are safe, fair, and responsible?
• Is AI worth having? What could AI do for us in the future?

It’s time to understand what this AI hubbub is all about and what you’re going to do about it because what you don’t know about AI, could hurt you.