To kick off a new season of Between Worlds, I’m turning the camera and the microphone back on myself! What you are about to hear is the first chapter of my brand new audiobook, ‘The Algorithmic Leader: How to be smart, when machines are smarter than you.’ In this book, you will meet many of the leaders, pioneers, and scientists that regular listeners to this show will recognize from previous episodes. What will happen to jobs in a time of accelerating automation? How does the availability of real-time data change the way we need to think and solve problems? What will it take to be an effective leader in a world changed by AI? What are the secrets to successful digital transformation? I’ve synthesized years of research into a set of 10 principles about what it takes to succeed in the algorithmic age. My book is out in early March (pre-order), but if you enjoy this sample, you can download the entire audiobook at Audible or iTunes today. 

The algorithmic age raises new difficult questions about truth and objectivity. For leaders of companies and countries alike, reconciling accountability and transparency, with freedom and privacy have never been more difficult. To debate these issues, I sat down with Andreas Ekström, a Swedish philosopher and author of seven books, known for his writing and lectures on life in the digital age. His TEDx talk on the false objectivity of search results has been viewed over a million times.

Sherif Elsayed-Ali leads Amnesty International's global technology and human rights program. Sherif previously established Amnesty’s technology and human rights program and the organization’s artificial intelligence and human rights initiative. We met up in London to talk about the impact of algorithms, automation and AI on freedom, identity and privacy. Given the encroaching power of states and global corporations to collect and analyze data on their citizens and customers, there has never been a more important time for leaders to ask themselves, what is the right moral compass for the algorithmic age?

When AI platforms are not busy beating us at Go or showing us how to drive cars properly, they are also changing the way that companies spend and track money. Talking with Manish Singh, an EVP at Oversight Systems, I learned how machine learning is both automating financial operations, and transforming the way we mitigate risk. Although Manish and I had fun talking about some of my favorite geeky AI topics (probabilistic thinking and the influence of Thomas Bayes), what you may find really interesting, is our discussion on how clerical jobs in the company of the future will not be simply automated, but elevated into something altogether new with very different skills and outcomes.

One of the most interesting and controversial topics today is the potential impact of AI on employment, economics and politics. Calum Chace has written a number of bestselling books on these topics including ‘Surviving AI’ and ‘The Economic Singularity’. We met up in London to talk about the broader social consequences of superintelligence, the merits of a Universal Basic Income, and how the concept of work and employment might radically change in the future.