Futureproof

Recently, I was at a party in San Francisco when a man approached me and introduced himself as the founder of a small AI start-up. As soon as the founder figured out that I was a technology writer for The New York Times, he launched into a pitch for his company, which he said was trying to revolutionize the manufacturing sector using a new AI technique called deep reinforcement learning. Modern factories, he explained, were struggling with what is called production planning the complex art of calculating which machines should be making which things on which days. Today, he said, most factories employ humans to look at thick piles of data and customer orders to figure out whether the plastic-molding machines should be making X-Men figurines on Tuesdays and TV remotes on Thursdays, or vice versa. It s one of those dull-but-essential tasks without which modern capitalism would probably grind to a halt, and companies spend billions of dollars a year trying to get it right. The founder explained that his company s AI could run millions of virtual simulations for any given factory, eventually arriving at the exact sequence of processes that would allow it to produce goods most efficiently. This AI, he said, would allow factories to replace entire teams of human production planners, along with most of the outdated software those people relied on. We call it the Boomer Remover, he said. The . . . Boomer . . . Remover? I asked. Yeah, he said. I mean, that s not the official name. But our clients have way too many old, overpaid middle-managers who aren t really necessary anymore. Our platform lets them replace those people. The founder, who appeared to be a few drinks deep, then told a story about a client who had been looking for a way to get rid of one particular production planner for years, but could never figure out how to fully automate his job away. But mere days after installing his company s software, the client had been able to eliminate the planner s position with

Kevin Roose is a technology columnist for The New York Times. He is the host of the Rabbit Hole podcast and a regular guest on The Daily. He writes and speaks frequently about topics including automation and AI, social media, disinformation and cybersecurity, and digital wellness. Previously, he was a writer at New York magazine and the co executive producer of Real Future, a documentary TV series about technology. He is the New York Times bestselling author of two previous books, Young Money and The Unlikely Disciple. He lives in Oakland, California.

Engaging . . . Roose delves into this crisis with an accessible touch that nicely explains how AI is infiltrating every part of our society and workforce. The Times

Artificial intelligence and robots themselves can be terrifying, but Kevin Roose provides a clear, compelling strategy for surviving the next wave of technology with our jobs and souls intact. Whether you re an optimist or a pessimist about the future, Futureproof is the survival guide you need. Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit

While I think that Skynet is still going to send the Terminator back to try to kill humanity someday, it s worth your time and attention if that is still a thing in the addled Internet age to read Kevin Roose s bracing book now. Why? Because it s a primer on the future and how to deal with the incoming today, from AI to automation to robotics and more, by using the tools of creativity and just being human. Whether the digital threat comes from a cybernetic organism from 2459 arriving in a big ball of lightning or from that innocent-looking mobile supercomputer in your hand, I do know that you need to prepare for the next tech age. And there s no better way to do it than to futureproof yourself by letting Roose show you how. Kara Swisher, host of Sway and Pivot, New York Times contributing opinion writer