Business ethics and social responsibility Books

Book Synopsis"If you’re going to read one book on artificial intelligence, this is the one." —Stephen Marche, New York Times A jaw-dropping exploration of everything that goes wrong when we build AI systems and the movement to fix them.Trade Review"The disconnect between intention and results—between what mathematician Norbert Wiener described as 'the purpose put into the machine' and 'the purpose we really desire'—defines the essence of 'the alignment problem.' Brian Christian, an accomplished technology writer, offers a nuanced and captivating exploration of this white-hot topic, giving us along the way a survey of the state of machine learning and of the challenges it faces." -- David A. Shaywitz - Wall Street Journal"A fascinating, provocative, and insightful tour of all the ways that AI goes wrong and all the ways people are trying to fix it. Essential reading if you want to understand where our world is heading." -- Stuart Russell, professor of computer science, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Human Compatible"A new field has emerged that responds to and scrutinizes the vast technological shifts represented by our modern, virtual, algorithmically defined world. In The Alignment Problem, Brian Christian masterfully surveys the ‘AI fairness’ community, introducing us to some of its main characters; some of its historical roots in science, philosophy, and activism; and crucially, many of its philosophical quandaries and limitations." -- Cathy O’Neil, author of Weapons of Math Destruction"This is the book on artificial intelligence we need right now. Brian Christian takes us on a technically fluent (yet widely accessible) journey through the most important questions facing AI and humanity. It is thought-provoking and vital reading for anyone interested in our future." -- Mike Krieger, cofounder of Instagram"An abundantly researched and captivating book that explores the road humanity has taken to create a successor for itself—a road that’s rich with surprising discoveries, unexpected obstacles, ingenious solutions and, increasingly, hard questions about the soul of our species." -- Jaan Tallinn, cofounder of Skype and the Future of Life Institute"The Alignment Problem should be required reading for anyone influencing policy where algorithms are in play—which is everywhere. But unlike much required reading, the book is a delight to read, a playful romp through personalities and relatable snippets of science history that put the choices of our present moment into context." -- Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America and former deputy CTO of the United States"A deeply enjoyable and meticulously researched account of how computer scientists and philosophers are defining the biggest question of our time: how will we create intelligent machines that will improve our lives rather than complicate or even destroy them? There’s no better book than The Alignment Problem at spelling out the issues of governing AI safely." -- James Barrat, best-selling author of Our Final Invention"Brian Christian is a fine writer and has produced a fascinating book. AI seems destined to become, for good or ill, increasingly prominent in our lives. We should be grateful for this balanced and hype-free perspective on its scope and limits." -- Martin Rees, emeritus professor of cosmology and astrophysics, University of Cambridge"An intriguing exploration of AI, which is advancing faster than—well, than we are." -- Kirkus Reviews

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Book Synopsis#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A bold work from the author of The Black Swan that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one’s own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life. As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights:

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Book Synopsis'A wake-up call ... fascinating' Scott Galloway, author of The Four'Please read this' Jaron Lanier, author of Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media From the author of Move Fast and Break Things comes a withering takedown of four billionaires (from Andreessen to Zuckerberg) who are selling us fantasies while the world burns.At a time when multiple crises are compounding to create epic inequality, four billionaires are hyping schemes that are designed to divert our attention away from issues that really matter. Each scheme - from the metaverse to cryptocurrency, space travel and transhumanism - is an existential threat in moral, political, and economic terms.In The End of Reality¸ Jonathan Taplin shines a light on the enormous cultural power of Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Marc Andreessen, questioning whether we want our society to be run by people who receive blood transfusions to stay young. Will we really want our children anywhere near the metaverse? Do we trust Musk to rule over Mars?Tech monopolies have hollowed out the middle class and brought unbounded public acrimony. Meanwhile, enormous amounts of taxpayer money are funnelled into dystopian ventures, the benefits of which accrue to billionaires. The End of Reality is both a scathing critique of the warped worldview of a tiny minority and a vision of a truly regenerative economics to build a sustainable society with healthy growth and full employment.Trade ReviewTech culture has to improve for the sake of humanity, and that's not going to happen without critiques like The End of Reality. Please take the time to read this carefully, especially if you are sure it must be wrong. -- Jaron Lanier, author of Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right NowA wake-up call as to what happens when a society elevates people who don't have the public's best interests in mind. Taplin has a gift for storytelling that turns the bitter pill (reality check) into a fascinating read. -- Scott Galloway, bestselling author of AdriftPersuasive and insightful, this cutting portrait of America's slide toward oligarchy hits home. -- starred review * Publisher's Weekly *For those who profit from our polarization, isolation, and extremism, a failed democracy is not a bug but a feature. The End of Reality is an urgent warning about the concentration of power and privilege, an alarm that seeks to break through the captivating distractions of our age. -- Beto O’Rourke[Written] with eloquence and conviction... His great virtue as a writer is his humanity, an ability to clearly and elegantly state the case. The persuasive way Taplin builds his arguments, and the direct, uncompromising conclusions he draws, are what make this book so valuable. The End of Reality weaves together an ambitious and far-reaching critique of "our culture of escape from reality".' * Irish Independent *Scathing but humane... It's Taplin's contention that through their brain-dead ventures, they are avoiding reality - and would have us follow them... I found his pessimism strangely invigorating... A rousing rallying cry to resist the technocrats. * Business Post *

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Book SynopsisOver two million copies sold. Stephen M. R. Covey shows how trust—and the speed at which it is established with clients, employees, and all stakeholders—is the single most critical component of a successful leader and organization.Stephen M. R. Covey, widely known as one of the world’s leading authorities on trust, asserts that it is “the most overlooked, misunderstood, underutilized asset to enable performance. Its impact, for good or bad, is dramatic and pervasive. It’s something you can’t escape.” Thankfully, it’s is also the thing that can dramatically improve your personal and professional success. Why trust? The simple, often overlooked fact is this: work gets done with and through people. The Speed of Trust offers an unprecedented and eminently practical look at exactly how trust functions in every transaction and every relationship—from the most personal to the broadest, most indi

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Book SynopsisIn this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. With boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, behavioral economics, artificial intelligence, military history, and politics to show how this simple idea offers important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, run our companies, and think about our world.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Lewis at his best. . . .You could easily make a savage satire on the crazy snakes and ladders of the crypto wild west described in Going Infinite. But if you have a feeling for the lives of these young people, it is a tragedy too. Whatever the precise proportions inside Sam Bankman-Fried of sincerity and moral seriousness versus malignity, deception and self-deception, I would defy anyone to read Lewis’s book and conclude its subject to be a grifter." -- Jesse Armstrong, writer and creator of HBO’s Succession, Times Literary Supplement"Going Infinite is a stupefyingly pleasurable book to read. It’s perfectly paced, extremely funny, and fills in many gaps in a story that has been subjected to an unholy amount of reporting... What he began with Moneyball has come into full flower with Going Infinite. Lewis has surveyed a landscape taken by convention as settled and found it destabilized, at least here and there, by uneven and unreliable information. Perhaps Lewis’s book should encourage an update, however minuscule, in our own priors." -- Gideon Lewis-Kraus - The New Yorker"Going Infinite is a portrait of grandiose ambitions, youthful arrogance, and the distorting power of money...[Lewis] remains the greatest living exponent of the plain style in reporting. His eye for detail is unsurpassed... And as a chronicle of collective delusion - a modern version of the Dutch tulip mania -Going Infinite is an instant classic... Michael Lewis deserves huge credit for capturing [SBF] in all his infinite weirdness... Mark Zuckerberg, another boy genius in ratty shoes, once described Twitter as a clown car that fell into a gold mine. Sam Bankman-Fried was a Seth Rogen character who fell into a tulip field circa 1634. Another one will be along in a minute. We never learn." -- Helen Lewis - The Atlantic"Leave it to [Lewis] to have unfettered access to one of the best financial stories to come around in years…. There are, of course, the priceless anecdotes from the book… including S.B.F.’s inane conversation with Anna Wintour about whether he would attend and potentially sponsor the annual Met Gala—“Yup!”—and the revelations about his relationship with Ellison, the consequences of which are now playing out in court….Going Infinite, is a delightful read, highly entertaining, often insightful and amusing. It’s a character study of one of the most notorious financial figures of our time…. [Lewis] does not attempt in any way to try to figure out how S.B.F. pulled off what he is accused of doing, other than by revealing that he is one strange dude, lacking empathy, and capable, apparently, of fleecing billions from his customers." -- Willam Cohan - Puck"Lewis’ storytelling is as good as ever… In the past, Mr Lewis has focused on little-known people doing extraordinary things. This time his subject is notorious… Mr Bankman-Fried’s hyper-rationality sets him apart from everyone. He views people not as good or bad, but as “probability distributions” around a mean… By tolerating the idea that hyper-rationalists cannot make sense of the rules of the game the way most people do, Mr Lewis implicitly asks readers to reconsider whatever they thought they knew about Mr Bankman-Fried. In the court of public opinion, he is already convicted. That’s reason enough to give this book a read." -- Economist"Michael Lewis has an uncanny instinct for a big story, and is now right in the thick of the action again... Reading Lewis can feel like being a passenger in an expertly piloted bobsleigh. You’re moving so fast down the mountain, but you know you’re going to be delivered safe and sound – hot chocolate waiting at the bottom. There is no need to stress, only to thrill to the scenery as it hurtles past." -- New Statesman"In November 2022, FTX collapsed in a matter of days after it suffered billions of dollars in customer withdrawals, sending shockwaves through the crypto world. To make sense of all this, with perfect timing, comes Michael Lewis…Going Infinite is his superbly detailed picture of the man behind it...So where might the money have gone? We still don’t entirely know, though Lewis offers some preliminary balance sheet calculations ? which remain more detailed than anything FTX ever published." -- Evening Strandard"Michael Lewis is the world’s finest financial storyteller… Going Infinite is at its best in describing Bankman-Fried’s rise… Lewis is equally sharp on how the effective altruism movement shifted its priorities, from donating to prevent disease and mortality in the global south to worrying about (putative) trillions of human lives across the galaxy in the distant future." -- Steven Poole - Daily Telegraph"Going Infinite is insanely readable and I devoured it, marvelling at Lewis’s ability to pace, structure and humanise a story about something as dense and unfriendly as crypto… As with previous outings such as Moneyball (nerdy baseball stats), The Big Short (credit default swaps), and Flash Boys (high-frequency trading) Going Infinite shows off Lewis’s peculiar genius for making arcane information as transporting as fantasy fiction. ? Guardian" -- Guardian"Going Infinite is wildly entertaining, surprising multiple times on pretty much every page, but it adds up to a sad story, even a tragedy, for its central character and for all the people who lost so much thanks to his actions… Lewis tries to answer the first question he was asked about Bankman-Fried: who was this guy? The question of his guilt or innocence Lewis leaves to the criminal justice system. I think that’s good practice, given that the trial is happening right now. For what it’s worth, I see no contradiction between the person described in Going Infinite and the things SBF is accused of having done. In fact I think the book makes it easier to understand how and why he did what he allegedly did." -- John Lanchester - London Review of Books

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Book SynopsisThe inside story of a band of entrepreneurial upstarts who made millions selling painkillers?until their scheme unraveled, putting them at the center of a landmark criminal trial. ? THE BASIS FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE PAIN HUSTLERS STARRING EMILY BLUNT AND CHRIS EVANS Unfolds with the velocity and verve of a Scorsese film…A tour de force.?Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing John Kapoor had already amassed a small fortune in pharmaceuticals when he founded Insys Therapeutics. It was the early 2000s, a boom time for painkillers, and he developed a novel formulation of fentanyl, the most potent opioid on the market.Kapoor, a brilliant immigrant scientist with relentless business instincts, was eager to make the most of his innovation. He gathered around him an ambitious group of young lieutenants. His head of sales?an unstable and unmanageable leader, but a genius of persuasion?built a team willing to pull every lever to close a sale, going so far as to recruit an exotic dancer ready to scrape her way up. They zeroed in on the eccentric and suspect doctors receptive to their methods. Employees at headquarters did their part by deceiving insurance companies. The drug was a niche product, approved only for cancer patients in dire condition, but the company?s leadership pushed it more widely, and together they turned Insys into a Wall Street sensation.But several insiders reached their breaking point and blew the whistle. They sparked a sprawling investigation that would lead to a dramatic courtroom battle, breaking new ground in the government?s fight to hold the drug industry accountable in the spread of addictive opioids.In Pain Hustlers, National Magazine Award?finalist Evan Hughes lays bare the pharma playbook. He draws on unprecedented access to insiders of the Insys saga, from top executives to foot soldiers, from the patients and staff of far-flung clinics to the Boston investigators who treated the case as a drug-trafficking conspiracy, flipping cooperators and closing in on the key players.With colorful characters and true suspense, Pain Hustlers offers a bracing look not just at Insys, but at how opioids are sold at the point they first enter the national bloodstream?in the doctor?s office.

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