Code-Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

A riveting human story of how artificial intelligence systems are shaping people’s lives around the globe, revealing the perils and inequities of the growing reliance on automated decision-making

On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Iraqi refugee, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience—that of artificial intelligence. AI has already infiltrated our daily lives, without our conscious understanding. These automated systems draw patterns and predict behavior from large datasets. And their findings affect us on every level, from our interpersonal relationships to our kids, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights.

Through a series of personal narratives, Code-Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful and flawed technologies on people, communities, and our wider society. Their stories, told from around the world and far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, show how AI can influence our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will.

The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we lack the tools to interrogate that change. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these systems. We disagree on the controls we may want to impose on AI software. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines.

In Code-Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also argues for another path forward. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small—and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.

About the Author

Madhumita Murgia is an award-winning Indian-British journalist and commentator, who writes about the impact of technology and science on society. She is currently AI Editor at the Financial Times in London, where she leads global coverage of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. She has spent the past decade travelling the world from Silicon Valley to Seoul, writing about the people, start-ups and corporations shaping cutting edge technologies, for publications including WIRED, the Washington Post, Newsweek and the Telegraph. She appears frequently on national radio and TV in the UK, including the BBC’s flagship Today program and Sky News. Her TEDx Talk, about her personal data being sold by data brokers has been viewed by nearly 200,000 people online. Madhu lives in London, but her heart remains in her hometown, Mumbai.