The future is being decided. Were you asked?

Hi, I’m Asim Javed. And you know what? AI told me this recording was too long. Well, I disagree, and here’s why. You’re here because you care about and value agency, either for yourself or for others. And maybe you’re feeling like you’re losing a little bit of that ability to make choices in life because of the incredible speed and power with which AI is almost taking over everything. If you’ve also felt that nobody asked you what you thought, you’re not alone. I feel the same way, and that’s really why I wrote this book.

I worked on AI as part of my Master’s degree at Oxford back in 1993, and since ChatGPT was released in 2022, I’ve spent most of my time helping business leaders adopt and get value from AI. I’ve been enthusiastic about AI, and still am, because I believe it can do a great deal of good.

Then I listened to an interview with Tristan Harris, and began to see what I’d been missing. Many of the people building these systems are caught in a race to create the most intelligent technology in history, each one of them convinced that someone else will build it if they don’t. And some of the people leading these companies or funding them, have little regard for the impact of what they are doing. I realized I had been naive, and I suspect many of us have been, because nobody ever explained what was really at stake in all of this.

And when people are asked, they’ve been clear. In one poll, ninety-five percent of Americans said they don’t want a race to superintelligence, and even some of the pioneers of the technology have asked for it to be put on hold until it can be done safely. Yet despite this, very little has changed, and I understand how frustrating that can feel.

Every piece of this story has been reported somewhere, from how our attention is shaped and what we can trust online, to what’s happening to our work and our children, and the growing role of the military. What I couldn’t find was one place that brought it all together in plain language. So I decided to write it. It’s called Future Without Consent.

Wherever you sit in this story, you’re already part of it, and it shows up differently depending on what you do.

If you’re a parent, or a professional who has watched your own work change, you’ve probably been waiting for someone to explain what’s happening in language that actually makes sense.

If you teach, whether that’s AI ethics or a subject where your students are suddenly asking about AI, you need something fair and substantial enough to build a conversation around.

You might be someone who’s responsible for bringing AI into an organization, or perhaps you advise the people who are. You’re probably being asked questions about risk and ethics that the vendors’ brochures don’t answer.

Maybe you’re a builder, or work with this technology. And you’re probably already feeling the distance between what you’re being asked to ship, and what you’d be comfortable defending, and you may not have many places to talk about that honestly.

And if you work in law, policy, journalism, or research, you already know that an argument is only as strong as the evidence beneath it. So I built this book on primary sources: court rulings, government reports, and the words of the people involved, with references at the end of every chapter, so you can check anything I say. I’ve also tried to present the opposing arguments, including those from the people building this technology, in their strongest form before responding to them. That way, you don’t have to take my word for any of it.

With all of that said, I don’t think it’s too late. I wrote this book to help you see the situation as clearly as I do now. One last thought: You know, if you think about it, we’re alive because we respond to stimuli, but we’re human because we can choose how we respond, and the future is still being written. So I’d like to invite you to read it, think it through with me, and decide for yourself, because the choice, for now, is still ours.