IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016 - 19

have a stake, and therefore can be
used to rationalize a guaranteed
minimum income. Ford's book is
strongest as an approachable and
compelling entry to these sorts
of economic, political, and moral
questions, and why they are not
mere flights of fancy. We have to be
ready to rethink many of our historical assumptions about technology
and the economy in order to adapt
to increasing automation. This
much is clear from Ford's account.
Ford tells great stories, both
about innovation in the last 50
years and about the potential
impacts of widespread automation
of work in the future. But while they
are suggestive, useful vehicles for
thinking about the future, the stories do not provide factual concrete
proof. This is in a sense a fundamental problem with attempting
to study the future, but could be
ameliorated by stronger academic
citations. Despite its name, Rise
of the Robots is less about robots
than it is about adapting the economy to current and future problems,
and its solution-making is far more
interesting than its coverage of the
technology itself. Education and
health care, as described here, suffer inefficiency more because of
economic factors than their relative
lack of information technology and
automation. Entrenched forces of
bureaucracy, combined with the
availability of large amounts of
money - from students and families in the former case, and insurance companies in the latter, have
combined to allow for costs to
increase. While MOOCs, medical
robots, and machine-learning-powered medical decision assistants
may cut down on costs in both
sectors, Ford's suggestions are
primarily about social policy. His
prescriptions here are convincing;
but when they lack references, the
work suffers.
june 2016

Even if one is relatively willing
that will be available for them."
to accept Ford's argument that funThis last section is where the book
damentally high ceilings for artifitruly finds its feet; using all of
cial intelligence put just about
the previous discussion as backevery occupation at risk - includground, Ford asks how we preing knowledge-work and even "blue
pare for an essentially inevitable
sky" innovation, in the extreme
situation. It seems likely, as Ford
case - the details are
fuzz y. Ford may speak
from significant experience
in industry, but does not
convey that experience in
The economy, in Ford's eyes,
a way that allows for independent assessment and
can be likewise reinterpreted as
corroboration. Limited citaa resource in which all citizens
tions often reference contemporary news articles,
have a stake, and therefore
which make it difficult to
assess how much of what
can be used to rationalize a
is being discussed is real,
guaranteed minimum income.
and how much is hype from
the technology companies
concerned. He is also optimistic, perhaps overly so, about the
argues, that no amount of new
potential of "Big Data" to power the
technology and associated profit
next revolution in decision-making
opportunities - blogs, marketplacand AI applications. While he does
es, services - will fill the subsisrecognize some of the perils of statence gap for most of the citizenry.
tistical decision making based on
A major shift in economic policy
even very large data sets, he presis the only solution that Ford sees
ents certain cases, such as Target's
to ensure that consumer spending
use of buying patterns to perform
can continue to drive the market.
"rather creepy" pregnancy predicShort of a complete rethinking of
tion, without critique: telling only
the entire concept of capitalism,
the successful side of one venture
which he does not contemplate,
does no justice to the challenges of
a guaranteed minimum income
appropriately and robustly applying
seems to him the best option.
correlative patterns on a large scale.
Ford makes a compelling case
Nevertheless, the author's fundafor this, from a pragmatic point
mental points for the future stand,
of view. He consults the works of
even if one were to quibble about
multiple economists, though it was
approaches and timelines.
unfortunate to see little engageMany such issues with Ford's
ment with what philosophy has to
book are ameliorated by its farsay, inasmuch as that is relevant
reaching perspective. Not content
for what seems to be a fundamento examine only the next 10 years,
tal ideological and societal shift in
Ford targets the possible future
welfare policy. Nevertheless, the
that current trends point towards.
author builds a strong, if not closed,
Though he maintains a healthy
economic case for why we need to
skepticism about an impending
start moving toward a system that is
"Singularity" and the feasibility of
robust in the face of the next phase
strong AI in general, he remains
of worker displacement. What lies
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