We Are Not Machines - by Sarah O'Connor (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Original and enlightening....the kind of writing that AI will never replace."--The Times

Automation was promised to free us from drudgery. Instead, it is turning creative and essential work into dehumanizing labor.

In this deeply reported investigation, award-winning Financial Times journalist Sarah O'Connor exposes how AI and robotics are reshaping the modern workplace. Traveling from Amazon warehouses and long-haul trucking routes to Orwellian corporate offices using AI hiring algorithms, O'Connor documents a disturbing reality: workers aren't being liberated by machines--they are being paced, monitored, and crunched by them.

As O'Connor asks: "We think we're robotizing our work, but what if we're actually robotizing ourselves?"

Drawing lines of descent from nineteenth-century English cotton mills to twenty-first-century Swedish mines, O'Connor shows that our struggle against algorithmic management is not new. Inspiring and urgent, this book charts a vital path forward to reclaim work that respects human limits and honors the capacity of the human mind.

Review Quotes

Praise for We Are Not Machines

"Sounds the alarm on the need to protect workers' rights in
the AI-dominated workplace."

--Booklist

"Original and enlightening, rooted in reality and populated by people. Not many books about the labor market make you laugh and bring tears to your eyes. This one does. It's the kind of writing that AI will never replace."

--The Times

"Concluding that the 'real danger is not that we successfully make machines in our image, but that we silently remake ourselves in theirs, ' O'Connor nonetheless maintains optimism that the 'future of work can be... worthy of the human mind.' It's a balanced and forward-thinking take on AI."

--Publishers Weekly

"A fierce, wise, beautiful book."

--Tim Harford, author of The Data Detective

"A lively and engaging read which teases out some compelling human stories. O'Connor describes both the peril and promise unleashed hy AI-and issues a powerful call to arms for us all about how to respond. A must-read for educators, policy makers, executives, and employees."

--Gillian Tett, author of Anthro-Vision

"Brilliantly insightful...no one provides a better worm's eye view of the world of work than Sarah O'Connor."

--Andy Haldane, former Bank of England chief economist

"Sarah is the best writer out there on the world of work, and her debut is as insightful, surprising and illuminating as I hoped."

--Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland

"An invaluable guide to one of the biggest economic stories of our age. Most books about AI lurch between hype and despair but Sarah O'Connor has captured something far rarer: a glimpse of how machines are actually reshaping our lives and livelihoods."

--Ed Conway, author of Material World

"A hopeful and urgent reminder that the future of work is what we make it. Her warning is important and grounded: there is a better path."

--Carl Benedikt Frey, author of How Progress Ends

About the Author

Sarah O'Connor is a columnist, reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times. She writes a weekly column focused on the world of work, as well as longer features and investigations. She has won the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils, the Wincott Award for financial journalism, Business Commentator of the Year at the Comment Awards, Financial/Economic story of the year at the Foreign Press Awards and Business and Finance Journalist of the year at the British Press Awards.