July 2021

Kate Crawford is a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research Lab in New York, the Inaugural Visiting Chair of AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and the Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the University of Melbourne. She co-founded the AI Now Institute at New York University and leads the Foundations of Machine Learning international working group.That is a very impressive CV and Crawford’s wide experience and the ease with which she navigates, both intellectually and emotionally, the complex world of artificial intelligence makes the book illuminating and engaging. Drawing on real world examples, beyond discussions of code and algorithms, she explores artificial intelligence through the lenses of science, technology, law and politics. As indicated in the book's title, she uses a cartographic approach, explaining to us that “maps, at their best, offer us a compendium of open path-ways – shared ways of knowing – that can be mixed and combined to make new interconnections. There are also maps of domination…where territory is carved along fault lines of power…”. Crawford offers her deep understanding of, and desire to shine a light on, the “shifting tectonics of (AI) power” to the reader in a challenging yet accessible way. It is a tremendous gift of any expert to include rather than alienate the reader and Crawford does that beautifully. The conversation is inclusive, not exclusive which is exactly what it needs to be.

“The calls for labor, climate and data justice are at their most powerful when they are united.”