Tim Wu — The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity - with Cecilia Kang - Free Audiobook

Our world is dominated by a handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment, but also stand as some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented, seizing immense amounts of money, data, and attention from all of us. An economy driven by digital platforms and AI influence offers the potential to enrich us, and also threatens to marginalize entire industries, widen the wealth gap, and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our markets adapt, can society cultivate a better life for everyone? Is it possible to balance economic growth and egalitarianism, or are we too far gone?

Tim Wu--the preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase "net neutrality"--explores the rise of platform power and details the risks and rewards of working within such systems. _The Age of Extraction_ tells the story of an Internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy in the 1990s and 2000s, only to create new economic classes and aid the spread of autocracy instead. Wu frames our current moment with lessons from recent history--from generative AI and predictive social data to the antimonopoly and crypto movements--and envisions a future where technological advances can serve the greatest possible good. Concise and hopeful, The Age of Extraction offers consequential proposals for taking back control in order to achieve a better economic balance and prosperity for all.

Tim Wu is Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology at Columbia Law School. He worked in the White House as special assistant to the President for technology and competition policy. The author of The Master Switch and The Attention Merchants, he lives in New York City.

Wu will be in conversation with Cecilia Kang, an award-winning technology reporter for The New York Times and best-selling co-author of An Ugly Truth: Inside  Facebook's Battle for Domination.