In Code Dependent, a debut offering, which has been shortlisted for the 2024 Women’s Nonfiction Prize, Madhumita Murgia deals with the current hot topic of AI. She illuminates the impact of AI on our global society, with chapters dedicated to livelihood, identity, health and so on. Aided by a wealth of case studies, she demonstrates how AI victimizes women and the disadvantaged.
This view, a devastating one and not often shown in other similar tomes, is what distinguishes her book.
Murgia, born in India and now residing in England, is the artificial intelligence editor of the Financial Times. To find out how AI is trained, she travels extensively around the world and conducts interviews. In speaking with low-wage data workers, she uncovers “digital hegemony.” This means that a few large corporations, collectively known as “Big Tech,” drive the workers, who are usually among the most vulnerable members of society. Although their living standards are somewhat raised, they undertake risky work, one such being content moderation. This might involve having to sift through material for long hours that is violent, pornographic, or harmful. As a result, many suffer phycological trauma and succumb to PTSD.
Delivery drivers and other app workers often discover they’re being cheated out of their salary, but there’s no one to complain to. “Arbitrary, autocratic and unaccountable,” is how a worker describes such an AI-based system.
In the healthcare industry, AI can read medical images, help diagnose diseases at an early stage, and deliver care. It can help alleviate “systematic errors of judgement,” which a physician might encounter. The concern, however, remains whether the marginalized can afford to pay for such AI-based care or even have access to it.
Still, Murgia remains optimistic. “My hope for AI isn’t that it creates a new upgraded species without the messiness of humanity, but that it helps us ordinary, flawed humans live our best and happiest lives,” reads the epilogue.
