Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines

Davenport, Thomas H. and Julia Kirby

ISBN 10: 0062438611 / ISBN 13: 9780062438614

Published by HarperCollins, New York, 2016

About this Item

First edition, stated; first printing, full number line. Signed by coauthor Davenport on an "Only Humans Need Apply" bookplate on the half-title page (which has some rippling caused by the bookplate): "Tom Davenport." The book is square and unmarked; corners sharp, spine ends unbumped. The dust jacket is not price-clipped (original price $29.99); Brodart protected.

Seller Inventory # 008863

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Only Humans Need Apply: Winners and Losers in the Age of Smart Machines
• Publisher: HarperCollins, New York
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062438611
• ISBN 13: 9780062438614
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

An invigorating, thought-provoking, and positive look at the rise of automation that explores how professionals across industries can find sustainable careers in the near future.

Nearly half of all working Americans could risk losing their jobs because of technology. It’s not only blue-collar jobs at stake. Millions of educated knowledge workers—writers, paralegals, assistants, medical technicians—are threatened by accelerating advances in artificial intelligence.

The industrial revolution shifted workers from farms to factories. In the first era of automation, machines relieved humans of manually exhausting work. Today, Era Two of automation continues to wash across the entire services-based economy that has replaced jobs in agriculture and manufacturing. Era Three, and the rise of AI, is dawning. Smart computers are demonstrating they are capable of making better decisions than humans. Brilliant technologies can now decide, learn, predict, and even comprehend much faster and more accurately than the human brain, and their progress is accelerating. Where will this leave lawyers, nurses, teachers, and editors?

In Only Humans Need Apply, Thomas Hayes Davenport and Julia Kirby reframe the conversation about automation, arguing that the future of increased productivity and business success isn’t either human or machine. It’s both. The key is augmentation, utilizing technology to help humans work better, smarter, and faster. Instead of viewing these machines as competitive interlopers, we can see them as partners and collaborators in creative problem solving as we move into the next era. The choice is ours.

About the Authors

Thomas H. Davenport is the President’s Distinguished Professor in Management and Information Technology at Babson College, the cofounder of the International Institute for Analytics, a fellow of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and a senior advisor to Deloitte Analytics. He teaches analytics and big data in executive programs at Babson, Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School, and Boston University, and is the author or coauthor of seventeen books.

Julia Kirby is a senior editor at Harvard University Press and a contributing editor for Harvard Business Review. She is the coauthor of Standing on the Sun: How the Explosion of Capitalism Abroad Will Change Business Everywhere.