In his preface to The Tyranny of Algorithms, anthropologist Régis Meyran notes that for all the discourse surrounding the concept of artificial intelligence (AI), "we cannot be 'for' or 'against' AI, insofar as it is already here and not likely to disappear any time soon. The question we now face is rather how to exist qua human beings, individually, social, collectively, in a world governed in large measure by algorithms." What follows is philosopher and psychoanalyst Miguel Benasayag's comprehensive argument for how to go forward as individuals and groups in the world ceded to the structures of AI, framed as a dialogue between Benasayag and Meyran.
The book's engrossing conversational structure makes it easy to follow Benasayag's reasoning, and helps to take readers through some quite complicated arguments. The questions framing the discussion anticipate the questions that readers might themselves have about the idea that the future lies less in models of certainty and more in embracing the idea that humans just need to know what they do not want to happen. Benasayag challenges the reduction of humans to predictive microdata, such as targeted advertising on social media, and confronts a world that uses AI to make social, financial and governing decisions without considering the impact on humans beyond efficiency or profitability. Most significantly, Benasayag puts forth a provocative solution in which new technologies and digital architecture are integrated in a way that emphasizes human emotion and experience, rather than treating such things as secondary. --Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer