How to Stay Smart in a Smart World: Why Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms

Description

An essential guide to navigating our data-driven world, from one of the most influential psychologists of the twenty-first century Is more data always better? Do algorithms really make better decisions than humans? Can we stay in control in an increasingly automated world? Drawing on examples from all spheres of life - media literacy, online dating, self-driving cars, the justice system, health records - Gerd Gigerenzer shows how, when it comes to data and decision making, more isn't always better- when dealing with uncertainty, the elegant and nuanced simplicity of human reasoning beats complex algorithms time and time again. Filled with practical examples and cutting-edge research, How to Stay Smart in a Smart World examines the growing role of AI at all levels of daily life with refreshing clarity. This book is a liferaft in a sea of information and an urgent invitation to actively shape the digital world in which we want to live.

Gerd Gigerenzer is Director of the Harding Centre for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam and partner of Simply Rational- The Institute for Decisions. He is former Director of the Centre for Adaptive Behaviour and Cognition at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and a former Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books on heuristics and decision-making, including Risk Savvy and Reckoning with Risk.

Enlightening, impassioned, powerful . . . exposes the hunger for autocratic power, the political naivety and the commercial chicanery that lie behind the rise of AI -- Simon Ings * The Times * Using personal anecdotes, cutting-edge research and cautionary real-world tales, Gigerenzer deftly explains the limits and dangers of technology and AI -- Chen Ly * New Scientist * Compelling . . . over many years, Gerd Gigerenzer has provided evidence that humans are smarter than economists. Now he shows that they are (where it matters) smarter than computers -- John Kay * co-author of Radical Uncertainty * One of the world's most eminent psychologists * Spectator * A fascinating invitation to keep thinking for ourselves... Vital reading for a world populated by algorithms -- Konstantinos Katsikopoulos, Professor of Behavioural Science, University of Southampton