Reprogramming the American Dream: From Rural America to Silicon Valley - Making AI Serve Us All

by Kevin Scott, Greg Shaw, J. D. Vance (Foreword by)

Overview

** #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller **

In this essential book written by a rural native and Silicon Valley veteran, Microsoft’s Chief technology officer tackles one of the most critical issues facing society today: the future of artificial intelligence and how it can be realistically used to promote growth, even in a shifting employment landscape.

There are two prevailing stories about AI: for heartland low- and middle-skill workers, a dystopian tale of steadily increasing job destruction; for urban knowledge workers and the professional class, a utopian tale of enhanced productivity and convenience. But there is a third way to look at this technology that will revolutionize the workplace and ultimately the world. Kevin Scott argues that AI has the potential to create abundance and opportunity for everyone and help solve some of our most vexing problems.

As the chief technology officer at Microsoft, he is deeply involved in the development of AI applications, yet mindful of their potential impact on workers—knowledge he gained firsthand growing up in rural Virginia. Yes, the AI Revolution will radically disrupt economics and employment for everyone for generations to come. But what if leaders prioritized the programming of both future technology and public policy to work together to find solutions ahead of the coming AI epoch? Like public health, the space program, climate change and public education, we need international understanding and collaboration on the future of AI and work. For Scott, the crucial question facing all of us is this: How do we work to ensure that the continued development of AI allows us to keep the American Dream alive?

In this thoughtful, informed guide, he offers a clear roadmap to find the answer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062879875
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	544,413
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

As executive vice president and chief technology officer of Microsoft, Kevin Scott’s 20-year career in technology spans both academia and industry as researcher, engineer and leader. Prior to joining Microsoft, Scott was senior vice president of engineering and operations at LinkedIn, where he helped build the technology and engineering team and led the company through an IPO and six years of rapid growth. Scott is the host of the podcast Behind the Tech, which features interviews with technology heroes who have helped create the tech industry of today.

Scott holds an M.S. in computer science from Wake Forest University, a B.S. in computer science from Lynchburg College, and completed most of his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Virginia.

J.D. Vance grew up in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio, and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq. A graduate of the Ohio State University and Yale Law School, he has contributed to the National Review and the New York Times, and works as an investor at a leading venture capital firm. Vance lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his family.

Table of Contents

Foreword J.D. Vance ix

Introduction 1

Part I Where We've Been

Chapter 1 When Our Jobs First Went Away 15

Chapter 2 The Career Choice I Made 29

Chapter 3 Stories of Revival 65

Chapter 4 The Intelligent Farm 93

Part II Where We're Headed, and How To Get There

Chapter 5 AI: Why It's Needed 117

Chapter 6 AI: What It Is (and Isn't) 129

Chapter 7 How Models Learn 145

Chapter 8 AI: A Threat or Boon to Jobs? 179

Chapter 9 Politics and Ethics 203

Conclusion 239

Acknowledgments 257

Notes 263

Further Reading 267

Index 271

Editorial Reviews

11/11/2019

Microsoft chief technology officer Scott offers a hopeful but not wholly convincing vision of how artificial intelligence might rescue America’s rust belt. Objecting to what he sees as one-sided characterizations of AI, as either all good or all bad, Scott aims for a clear-eyed assessment of its risks and benefits. He begins in his hometown of Gladys, Va., explaining how the local economy has been damaged by the disappearance of traditional, manual labor–reliant industries such as textile manufacturing and tobacco cultivation. What follows is a meandering look at AI’s potential to revitalize rural economies, illustrated with snapshots of new and evolving businesses outside tech hubs. Scott interviews, among other people, a lumber company manager who believes robotics will supplement, not supplant, his employees’ ability to do a “rough and dirty job,” and thereby prolong their careers. Scott makes a strong case that, with improved broadband access and tax incentives, AI-driven manufacturing enterprises could bloom throughout the heartland. His confidence that workers displaced by automation can be “re-skilled” into AI-related jobs is less persuasive, however, given the paucity of supporting details. Scott offers some appealing individual tales of economic revival, but his optimism never quite coheres into a clear argument for how American employment can be salvaged on a large scale. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"I hope you, like me, appreciate that Kevin finds some balance between the poles of 'the robots are coming for our jobs!' and 'AI is great, nothing to worry about!' I suspect that, in the coming decades, we'll increasingly recognize the wisdom of that view." — J.D. Vance, New York Times bestselling author of Hillbilly Elegy

All good futures for our society and for humanity broadly require harnessing technology. Kevin has written a very important book here. He shows how and why to have optimism about artificial intelligence, harnessing the technology to restore the American Dream. What's the future we should work towards? Kevin's book shines the light forward. Highly recommended. — Reid Hoffman, co-founder of Linkedin and author of Blitzscaling

"Kevin's examination of AI and the future of rural communities like the one in which he grew up in rural Virginia provides an unusually personal and empathetic perspective on how we can, together, create opportunity for ourselves, our organizations, and our world." — Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

"Scott’s version of our AI future is a refreshingly optimistic one, and it’s coming from someone who knows the technology very, very well." — Fast Company

From the Publisher

"I hope you, like me, appreciate that Kevin finds some balance between the poles of 'the robots are coming for our jobs!' and 'AI is great, nothing to worry about!' I suspect that, in the coming decades, we'll increasingly recognize the wisdom of that view."

J.D. Vance

All good futures for our society and for humanity broadly require harnessing technology. Kevin has written a very important book here. He shows how and why to have optimism about artificial intelligence, harnessing the technology to restore the American Dream. What's the future we should work towards? Kevin's book shines the light forward. Highly recommended.

Reid Hoffman

"Kevin's examination of AI and the future of rural communities like the one in which he grew up in rural Virginia provides an unusually personal and empathetic perspective on how we can, together, create opportunity for ourselves, our organizations, and our world."

Satya Nadella

"Scott’s version of our AI future is a refreshingly optimistic one, and it’s coming from someone who knows the technology very, very well."

Fast Company

2020-01-12
The chief technology officer at Microsoft joins a long line of experts describing how artificial intelligence and automation will make our lives better, provided we avoid the pitfalls.

Scott opens with a general assessment of the AI landscape: "There are two prevailing stories about AI: "for low- and middle-skill workers, we hear a grim tale of steadily increasing job destruction; for knowledge workers and the professional class, we hear an idyllic tale of enhanced productivity and convenience." After an autobiographical section—poor but brilliant country boy leaves his beloved Virginia, succeeds dramatically in Silicon Valley, and vows to give back—the author discusses how he and others are trying to do just that. The brutal fact is that San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Southern California lead America in job creation, and the runners-up are all urban, as well. Rural America is entering its second generation of depression, with businesses closing, unemployment rising, and the usual ills of crime, drug abuse, and infrastructure that's crumbling or, in the case of broadband, inadequate. Scott clearly describes efforts to bring in high-tech jobs that fail because locals lack the education to qualify. He excels in describing the problem and makes a convincing case that AI, a rare "platform technology" with positive feedback loops that "get better faster over time," will continue to change our lives. Though the author's heart is in the right place, his solutions, reasonable and presented with enthusiasm, break little new ground. Scott has no doubt that returning prosperity to America's heartland requires improving its quality of life by improving infrastructure, failing schools, and deficient health care and housing. That would seem to require government action, but, except for generous tax breaks, Scott focuses on entrepreneurship and local action, illustrating with stories of individuals and organizations who have taken matters into their own hands and succeeded.

Another thoughtful technocrat worries about AI and concludes that things will work out.

Kirkus Reviews