Tools and Weapons

From inside one of the world's largest technology companies, Microsoft President Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne consider how to weigh the promise of digital technology against its risks. Smith's core belief is that a company whose technology changes the world bears responsibility for helping to address the world it has helped create. The authors argue that tech firms must accept more responsibility and that governments need to regulate faster to keep pace with innovation. Topics include social media, cyberwar and cybercrime, privacy, inequality and big tech, the ethics of artificial intelligence, and the strains on democracy. The book also looks closely at several crucial recent decisions inside Microsoft, and it reached the New York Times best-seller list.

Reed Hastings praised its call for the tech sector to take on more responsibility, and Walter Isaacson called it an insiders' view of how technology both empowers and threatens us.