The Age of Prediction is about two powerful, and symbiotic, trends: the rapid development and use of artificial intelligence and big data to enhance prediction, as well as the often-paradoxical effects of these better predictions on our understanding of risk and the ways we live. Beginning with dramatic advances in quantitative investing and precision medicine, this book explores how predictive technology is quietly reshaping our world in fundamental ways, from crime fighting and warfare to monitoring individual health and elections.
The book details how predictive certainties can bring about complacency or even an increase in risks — genomic analysis might lead to unhealthier lifestyles or a GPS might encourage less attentive driving. With greater predictability also comes a degree of mystery, and the authors ask how narrower risks might affect markets, insurance or risk tolerance generally.
The Age of Prediction: Algorithms, AI, and the Shifting Shadows of Risk
Igor Tulchinsky and Christopher E. Mason
$27.95
The MIT Press
Available 8/22/2023
232 pages
