Listen free for 30 days
-
Sex, Race, and Robots
- How to Be Human in the Age of AI
- Narrated by: Amandla Stenberg
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $37.53
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
In the movies, robots can be terrifying. In reality, thinking machines are disrupting the world in ways that are even more disturbing than in Hollywood fantasies - but they also have the potential to change our lives for the better.
In this stirring, visionary work, acclaimed roboticist Dr. Ayanna Howard explores how the tech world’s racial and sexual biases are infecting the next generation of Artificial Intelligence, with profoundly negative effects for humans of all genders and races.
Drawing on cutting-edge research, and her own experience as one of the few Black women in the field of robotics, Dr. Howard shares how she navigated bias in her own coming-of-age as a roboticist. She also reveals how the world of computer programmers, which largely lacks women and Black people, is producing thinking machines that too often think like their flawed creators.
The danger of bias in our AI-powered machines has never been greater. Governments are using supercomputers to track COVID-19 patients. AI is being employed to monitor Black Lives Matter protests. Voice recognition systems have been rolled out that can’t hear female voices. Dr. Howard delivers a stirring warning about the risks of AI and robots - but also offers an uplifting message about empowerment and where we need to go next.
You may also enjoy...
-
Everybody Lies
- Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
- Written by: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Steven Pinker - foreword
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the end of on average day in the early 21st century, human beings searching the Internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. This staggering amount of information - unprecedented in history - can tell us a great deal about who we are - the fears, desires, and behaviors that drive us, and the conscious and unconscious decisions we make. From the profound to the mundane, we can gain astonishing knowledge about the human psyche that less than 20 years ago seemed unfathomable.
-
-
Totally worth the effort.
- By Stacy Richter on 2022-01-20
Written by: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, and others
-
In the Black
- My Life
- Written by: B. Denham Jolly
- Narrated by: Tim Puckett
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the Black traces B. Denham Jolly's personal and professional struggle for a place in a country where Black Canadians have faced systematic discrimination. He arrived from Jamaica to attend university in the mid-1950s and worked as a high school teacher before going into the nursing and retirement-home business. Though he was ultimately successful in his business ventures, Jolly faced both overt and covert discrimination, which led him into social activism.
-
-
Canadian history that we all need to know
- By Melissa L Krull on 2018-09-19
Written by: B. Denham Jolly
-
On Writers and Writing
- Written by: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margaret Atwood
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is the role of the writer? Prophet? High priest of art? Court jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain - or excuse! - their activities, looking at what costumes they have assumed, what roles they have chosen to play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the title: if a writer is to be seen as "gifted", who is doing the giving and what are the terms of the gift?
-
-
Margaret Atwood Kills It Again in NWTD
- By Anonymous User on 2021-03-02
Written by: Margaret Atwood
-
The Souls of Black Folk
- Written by: W. E. B. Du Bois
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line,” writes Du Bois, in one of the most prophetic works in all of American literature. First published in 1903, this collection of 15 essays dared to describe the racism that prevailed at that time in America—and to demand an end to it. Du Bois’ writing draws on his early experiences, from teaching in the hills of Tennessee, to the death of his infant son, to his historic break with the conciliatory position of Booker T. Washington.
-
-
Must Read!
- By Martell Thompson on 2024-09-01
Written by: W. E. B. Du Bois
-
I Hate the Ivy League
- Riffs and Rants on Elite Education
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Gladwell has long relished the opportunity to skewer the upper echelons of higher education, from the institution of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings to the LSATs to the luxe Bowdoin College cafeteria. I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education, upends the traditional thinking around how education should work and tries to get to the bottom of why we often reward the wrong people.
-
-
Relevant and informative
- By Anonymous User on 2023-06-04
Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
-
Assata
- Written by: Assata Shakur, Angela Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Sirena Riley
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2013 Assata Shakur, founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther and godmother of Tupac Shakur, became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted list. Assata Shakur's trial and conviction for the murder of a white State Trooper in the spring of 1973 divided America. Her case quickly became emblematic of race relations and police brutality in the USA. While Assata's detractors continue to label her a ruthless killer, her defenders cite her as the victim of a systematic, racist campaign.
-
-
Brilliant autobiography
- By Kindness Ambassador on 2021-02-25
Written by: Assata Shakur, and others
-
Everybody Lies
- Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are
- Written by: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Steven Pinker - foreword
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By the end of on average day in the early 21st century, human beings searching the Internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. This staggering amount of information - unprecedented in history - can tell us a great deal about who we are - the fears, desires, and behaviors that drive us, and the conscious and unconscious decisions we make. From the profound to the mundane, we can gain astonishing knowledge about the human psyche that less than 20 years ago seemed unfathomable.
-
-
Totally worth the effort.
- By Stacy Richter on 2022-01-20
Written by: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, and others
-
In the Black
- My Life
- Written by: B. Denham Jolly
- Narrated by: Tim Puckett
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the Black traces B. Denham Jolly's personal and professional struggle for a place in a country where Black Canadians have faced systematic discrimination. He arrived from Jamaica to attend university in the mid-1950s and worked as a high school teacher before going into the nursing and retirement-home business. Though he was ultimately successful in his business ventures, Jolly faced both overt and covert discrimination, which led him into social activism.
-
-
Canadian history that we all need to know
- By Melissa L Krull on 2018-09-19
Written by: B. Denham Jolly
-
On Writers and Writing
- Written by: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margaret Atwood
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is the role of the writer? Prophet? High priest of art? Court jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain - or excuse! - their activities, looking at what costumes they have assumed, what roles they have chosen to play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the title: if a writer is to be seen as "gifted", who is doing the giving and what are the terms of the gift?
-
-
Margaret Atwood Kills It Again in NWTD
- By Anonymous User on 2021-03-02
Written by: Margaret Atwood
-
The Souls of Black Folk
- Written by: W. E. B. Du Bois
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line,” writes Du Bois, in one of the most prophetic works in all of American literature. First published in 1903, this collection of 15 essays dared to describe the racism that prevailed at that time in America—and to demand an end to it. Du Bois’ writing draws on his early experiences, from teaching in the hills of Tennessee, to the death of his infant son, to his historic break with the conciliatory position of Booker T. Washington.
-
-
Must Read!
- By Martell Thompson on 2024-09-01
Written by: W. E. B. Du Bois
-
I Hate the Ivy League
- Riffs and Rants on Elite Education
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Gladwell has long relished the opportunity to skewer the upper echelons of higher education, from the institution of U.S. News & World Report’s Best College rankings to the LSATs to the luxe Bowdoin College cafeteria. I Hate the Ivy League: Riffs and Rants on Elite Education, upends the traditional thinking around how education should work and tries to get to the bottom of why we often reward the wrong people.
-
-
Relevant and informative
- By Anonymous User on 2023-06-04
Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
-
Assata
- Written by: Assata Shakur, Angela Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Sirena Riley
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2013 Assata Shakur, founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther and godmother of Tupac Shakur, became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted list. Assata Shakur's trial and conviction for the murder of a white State Trooper in the spring of 1973 divided America. Her case quickly became emblematic of race relations and police brutality in the USA. While Assata's detractors continue to label her a ruthless killer, her defenders cite her as the victim of a systematic, racist campaign.
-
-
Brilliant autobiography
- By Kindness Ambassador on 2021-02-25
Written by: Assata Shakur, and others
-
Move the Body, Heal the Mind
- Overcome Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia and Improve Focus, Creativity, and Sleep
- Written by: Jennifer Heisz
- Narrated by: Jennifer Heisz
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A noted neuroscientist reveals groundbreaking research on how fitness and exercise can combat mental health conditions such as anxiety, dementia, ADHD, and depression, and offers a plan for improving focus, creativity, and sleep.
-
-
Not worth the read
- By RB on 2022-03-08
Written by: Jennifer Heisz
-
Vibrate Higher Daily
- Live Your Power
- Written by: Lalah Delia
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Too often, we feel pulled down by circumstances or the negativity of others. We think we have no control over the things that are hurting us and holding us back from realizing our truest selves. But for Lalah Delia, we have more power within us than we know. Listen to your unique inner voice and trust your instincts: by doing so, you’re already experiencing the transformative power of vibrational-based living.
-
-
powerful
- By Andrée-Anne Pothel on 2023-12-20
Written by: Lalah Delia
-
Riot Baby
- Written by: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Narrated by: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor's son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven't happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands. Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative.
Written by: Tochi Onyebuchi
-
The Thank You Economy
- Written by: Gary Vaynerchuk
- Narrated by: Gary Vaynerchuk
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Thank You Economy is about something big, something greater than any single revolutionary platform. It isn't some abstract concept or wacky business strategy—it's real, and every one of us is doing business in it every day, whether we choose to recognize it or not. It's the way we communicate, the way we buy and sell, the way businesses and consumers interact online and offline.
-
-
Excellent
- By David Smith on 2022-06-02
Written by: Gary Vaynerchuk
-
Cat's Cradle
- Written by: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: Tony Roberts
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cat's Cradle is Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a little person as the protagonist; a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer; and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny.
-
-
Excellent book and recording
- By Emergentmind on 2019-05-18
Written by: Kurt Vonnegut
-
The Mind-Gut Connection
- How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health
- Written by: Emeran Mayer
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cutting-edge neuroscience combines with the latest discoveries on the human microbiome to inform this practical guide that proves once and for all the inextricable, biological link between mind and body.
-
-
Had to stop - dreadful experiments on monkeys
- By Pat in comox on 2023-10-03
Written by: Emeran Mayer
-
The Bomber Mafia
- A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
- Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Gladwell, author of New York Times best sellers including Talking to Strangers and host of the podcast Revisionist History, uses original interviews, archival footage, and his trademark insight to weave together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in Central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard. As listeners hear these stories unfurl, Gladwell examines one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Spinningwheelgirl on 2021-04-30
Written by: Malcolm Gladwell
-
No Filter
- The Inside Story of Instagram
- Written by: Sarah Frier
- Narrated by: Megan Tusing, Sarah Frier
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2010, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger released a photo-sharing app called Instagram, with one simple but irresistible feature: It would make anything you captured look more beautiful. The cofounders cultivated a community of photographers and artisans around the app, and it quickly went mainstream. In less than two years, it caught Facebook’s attention: Mark Zuckerberg bought the company for a historic one billion dollars when Instagram had only 13 employees.
-
-
Phenomenal: engaging, funny, fascinating.
- By Brooke on 2021-08-14
Written by: Sarah Frier
-
When Harry Met Pablo
- Truman, Picasso, and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art
- Written by: Matthew Algeo
- Narrated by: Pat Grimes
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Truman and Pablo Picasso were contemporaries and were both shaped by and shapers of the great events of the twentieth century—the man who painted Guernica and the man who authorized the use of atomic bombs against civilians. But in most ways, they couldn’t have been more different. Picasso was a communist, and probably the only thing Truman hated more than communists was modern art. Picasso was an indifferent father, a womanizer, and a millionaire. Truman was utterly devoted to his family. How did they come to be shaking hands in front of Picasso’s studio in the south of France?
-
-
Really rather good
- By Roberta W on 2024-06-24
Written by: Matthew Algeo
-
The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts
- The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative
- Written by: Gregg Hecimovich
- Narrated by: Ron Butler, Janina Edwards
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1857, a woman escaped enslavement on a North Carolina plantation and fled to a farm in New York. In hiding, she worked on a manuscript that would make her famous long after her death. The novel, The Bondwoman’s Narrative, was first published in 2002 to great acclaim, but the author’s identity remained unknown. Over a decade later, Professor Gregg Hecimovich unraveled the mystery of the author’s name and, in The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts, he finally tells her story.
-
-
the fact the story is more like a documentary of the making of the book
- By Sherry Graham on 2024-05-29
Written by: Gregg Hecimovich
-
Spirit Talker
- Indigenous Stories and Teachings from a Mi’kmaq Psychic Medium
- Written by: Shawn Leonard
- Narrated by: Shawn Leonard
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This teaching memoir by an Indigenous spirit talker includes stories about the author’s reconnection with his Mi’kmaq heritage along with techniques for connecting to Spirit and developing your own intuition and psychic abilities.
-
-
Best book ever
- By agnes on 2023-09-06
Written by: Shawn Leonard
-
My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward
- A Memoir
- Written by: Mark Lukach
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark and Giulia's life together began as a storybook romance. They fell in love at 18, married at 24, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was 27, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that her loved ones were not safe.
-
-
Amazing Book!
- By Melissa on 2018-09-27
Written by: Mark Lukach
What listeners say about Sex, Race, and Robots
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Romina Diaz-Matus
- 2021-10-14
Great Listen
A fascinating book to learn more about AI, power, bias and ethics. I loved it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hardy
- 2023-10-30
Extremely interesting, not great narration.
Narrator inflects upwards at the end of so many sentences, as though asking a question. The director should have shut that down immediately during recording/production.
Basic complaints:
- Data are plural.
- Big cracks in ice are crevasses, not crevices.
- Far too many pop culture references and not enough concrete references to actual companies creating and developing AI. (i.e., some companies are doing this, while others are going this route… why not give listeners specific details?)
In spite of these points, this is an extraordinarily important topic and book, and I enjoyed the book immensely. Highly recommend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lindsay B.
- 2020-10-11
Worth a listen!
This book is full of insightful and thought-provoking ideas and information, though I have to admit it started stronger than it ended. She lost me by reiterating the doomsayers mantra of "AI may take over and destroy humanity." The rest of the book was good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Erica Marie Scott
- 2020-12-05
So interesting!
I loved this from beginning to end! I was entertained, educated, and felt like I had met a new friend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julian Karpacz
- 2023-12-21
Disappointing
The book is 50% biography, 40% political opinion and 10% insights on the future of AI. Not what was described or what I was expecting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!