The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity

Today’s dominant tech platforms are the most effective tools ever created for extracting wealth, destabilising the societies they plunder by creating vast inequality. One of the world's pre-eminent anti-monopoly experts explains how and why we must take back control.

'Wu is a titan . . . a must-read' FINANCIAL TIMES

'Cuts to the core' CORY DOCTOROW, author of Enshittification

'Essential' KAREN HAO, author of Age of Empire

Our world is ruled 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 tech and AI could enrich us, yet it could also 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 way? Is it possible to balance economic growth and egalitarianism, or are we too late?

Tim Wu, the preeminent scholar and former White House official who coined the phrase ‘net neutrality’, tells the story of an internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy, only to aid the spread of autocracy instead. From generative AI and predictive social data to antitrust and cryptocurrency, Wu frames our current moment within key lessons from recent history. And, perhaps most importantly of all, Wu envisions a future where technological advances serve the greatest possible good – for everyone.

Concise and hopeful, The Age of Extraction offers consequential proposals for reclaiming control to achieve better economic balance and prosperity for all.

'A passionate call for a fairer economy' DARON ACEMOGLU, co-author of Why Nations Fail

'A how-to book on how we can achieve liberty' MATT STOLLER, author of Goliath

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 President Biden for technology and competition policy, where he helped craft the administration's antitrust policies. He is the author of The Master Switch and The Attention Merchants and coined the phrase 'net neutrality'. He currently splits his time between New York City and Oxford.