AI

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From culture and politics to business and economic value, power is changing in ways that are both fundamental and mysterious — and AI sits at the centre of it. Carl is one of the UK's leading writers and investigators of where power sits and how it works in the digital age. He founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos — the UK's first research team using AI to investigate digital spaces.

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The Manipulation of AI

Carl's current research focus is the manipulation of AI itself: his latest Demos report, GEO for Geopolitics, examines how the information AI models retrieve can be deliberately shaped to change the answers they give.

The full explainer: AI manipulation →

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The Death of the Gods

Carl's debut book, The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab (William Heinemann), won the 2019 Transmission prize. It traces how new, digital forms of power have chipped away at the old, familiar places where power used to sit; scaring CEOs, forcing politicians to resign, swallowing up newspapers, eclipsing experts, and pulling down companies.

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Power Trip

Power Trip is Carl's 5-part exploration of power and AI with Intelligence Squared: from watching criminals use AI to dissecting addictive technology, charting the often hidden ways technology is used to shape our lives. How are we being liberated? How controlled? And what can we all do, to take power back?

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Writing

• Open Sourcing the AI RevolutionDemos
• Could Chatbots become Cult Leaders?Unherd
• There is not enough control of the digital world [book extract]The Economist
• God is in the MachineTimes Literary Supplement
• For Better or Worse, Power is breaking free of its shacklesWired
• The Five People Changing the WorldWaterstones
• Stop Moralising the Tech GiantsWired
• Uber's paradox: Gig work app traps and frees its driversBBC
• How Dosh went digitalLiterary Review
• Death by Social MediaLiterary Review
• Guilt by AlgorithmLiterary Review
• Return of the MacLiterary Review

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Selected Media

• In Conversation with Reid Hoffman (Parts 1 & 2)Intelligence Squared
• The Battle for Control of AI — with Daron AcemogluIntelligence Squared
• The Long Shadow of AI — with Madhumita MurgiaInterview
• Is NVIDIA the Most Important Company in the World? — with Stephen WittDiscussion
• The Battle for Your BrainDocumentary

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