‘In a gripping – and sometimes creepy – book, Hill  explores the repercussions of [facial recognition] technology and finds out who is behind it’ THE TIMES Best Technology Books of 2023

‘Illuminating. A walk down the street will not feel quite the same again’    ECONOMIST
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When Kashmir Hill stumbled upon Clearview AI, a mysterious startup selling an app that claimed it could identify anyone using just a snapshot of their face, the implications were terrifying. The app could use the photo to find your name, your social media profiles, your friends and family – even your home address. But this was just the start of a story more shocking than she could have imagined.

Launched by computer engineer Hoan Ton-That and politician Richard Schwartz, and assisted by a cast of controversial characters on the alt-right, Clearview AI would quickly rise to the top, sharing its app with billionaires and law enforcement. In this riveting feat of reporting Hill weaves the story of Clearview AI with an exploration of how facial recognition technology is reshaping our lives, from its use by governments  and companies like Google and Facebook (who decided it was too radical to release) to the consequences of racial and gender biases baked into the AI. Soon it could expand the reach of policing – as it has in China and Russia – and lead us into a dystopian future.

Your Face Belongs to Us  is a gripping true story. It illuminates our tortured relationship with technology, the way it entertains us even as it exploits us, and it presents a powerful warning that in the absence of regulation, this technology will spell the end of our anonymity.
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*LONGLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD*

‘I loved this. A dark and gripping story, meticulously researched and stylishly told’ JENNY KLEEMAN, author of Sex Robots & Vegan Meat

‘Compelling . . . an engrossing cautionary tale’  LITERARY REVIEW

‘The  dystopian future portrayed in some science-fiction movies is already upon us. Kashmir Hill’s fascinating book brings home the scary implications of this new reality’  JOHN CARREYROU, author of Bad Blood
 

‘A fascinating work of popular science… Accessible and insightful, it’s a thought-provoking read.’ Observer

‘By melding science, history and philosophy, the book becomes a highly readable, and on occasion quite surprising, tour of the limits of consciousness.’ The Times

‘No one who reads Gregg’s witty and instructive book will come away without having learnt some humbling truths about themselves and their animal kin.’ New Statesman

‘His understanding of human and animal cognition provides real insight into how we think.’ Financial Times

‘Nothing less than brilliant’ Wall Street Journal

What if human intelligence is actually more of a liability than a gift? After all, the animal kingdom, in all its diversity, gets by just fine without it. At first glance, human history is full of remarkable feats of intelligence, yet human exceptionalism can be a double-edged sword. With our unique cognitive prowess comes severe consequences, including existential angst, violence, discrimination, and the creation of a world teetering towards climate catastrophe. What if human exceptionalism is more of a curse than a blessing?

As Justin Gregg puts it, there’s an evolutionary reason why human intelligence isn’t more prevalent in the animal kingdom. Simply put, non-human animals don’t need it to be successful. And, miraculously, their success arrives without the added baggage of destroying themselves and the planet in the process.

In seven mind-bending and hilarious chapters, Gregg highlights features seemingly unique to humans – our use of language, our rationality, our moral systems, our so-called sophisticated consciousness – and compares them to our animal brethren. What emerges is both demystifying and remarkable, and will change how you look at animals, humans, and the meaning of life itself.

Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the apple sitting on your kitchen counter alive, or is only the apple tree it came from deserving of the word? If we can’t answer that question here on earth, how will we know when and if we discover alien life on other worlds? The question hangs over some of society’s most charged conflicts – whether a fertilized egg is a living person, for example, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead.

Life’s Edge is an utterly fascinating investigation by one of the most celebrated science writers of our time. Zimmer journeys through the strange experiments that have attempted to recreate life. Literally hundreds of definitions of what that should look like now exist, but none has yet emerged as an obvious winner. Lists of what living things have in common do not add up to a theory of life. It’s never clear why some items on the list are essential and others not. Coronaviruses have altered the course of history, and yet many scientists maintain they are not alive. Chemists are creating droplets that can swarm, sense their environment, and multiply – have they made life in the lab?

Whether he is handling pythons in Alabama or searching for hibernating bats in the Adirondacks, Zimmer revels in astounding examples of life at its most bizarre. He tries his own hand at evolving life in a test tube with unnerving results. Charting the obsession with Dr Frankenstein’s monster and how Coleridge came to believe the whole universe was alive, Zimmer leads us all the way into the labs and minds of researchers working on engineering life from the ground up.

Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2021

Medicine, education, psychology, economics – wherever it really matters, we look to science for guidance. But what if science itself can’t always be relied on?

In this vital investigation, Stuart Ritchie reveals the disturbing flaws in today’s science that undermine our understanding of the world and threaten human lives. With bias, careless mistakes and even outright forgery influencing everything from austerity economics to the anti-vaccination movement, he proposes vital remedies to save and protect science – this most valuable of human endeavours – from itself.

* With a new afterword by the author *

‘Thrilling… Reminds us that another world is possible’ The Times, Books of the Year

‘Excellent… We need better science. That’s why books like this are so important’ Evening Standard

Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the apple sitting on your kitchen counter alive, or is only the apple tree it came from deserving of the word? If we can’t answer that question here on earth, how will we know when and if we discover alien life on other worlds? The question hangs over some of society’s most charged conflicts – whether a fertilized egg is a living person, for example, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead.

Life’s Edge is an utterly fascinating investigation by one of the most celebrated science writers of our time. Zimmer journeys through the strange experiments that have attempted to recreate life. Literally hundreds of definitions of what that should look like now exist, but none has yet emerged as an obvious winner. Lists of what living things have in common do not add up to a theory of life. It’s never clear why some items on the list are essential and others not. Coronaviruses have altered the course of history, and yet many scientists maintain they are not alive. Chemists are creating droplets that can swarm, sense their environment, and multiply. Have they made life in the lab?

Whether he is handling pythons in Alabama or searching for hibernating bats in the Adirondacks, Zimmer revels in astounding examples of life at its most bizarre. He tries his own hand at evolving life in a test tube with unnerving results. Charting the obsession with Dr Frankenstein’s monster and how Coleridge came to believe the whole universe was alive, Zimmer leads us all the way into the labs and minds of researchers working on engineering life from the ground up.

Imagine having your views ignored or your expertise frequently challenged by them.

Imagine people always addressing the woman you are with before you.

Now imagine a world in which the reverse of this is true.

The Authority Gap provides a startling perspective on the unseen bias at work in our everyday lives, to reveal the scale of the gap that still persists between men and women. Would you believe that US Supreme Court Justices are interrupted four times more often than male ones… 96% of the time by men? Or that British parents, when asked to estimate their child’s IQ will place their son at 115 and their daughter at 107?

Marshalling a wealth of data with precision and insight, and including interviews with pioneering women such as Baroness Hale, Mary Beard and Bernadine Evaristo, Mary Ann exposes unconscious bias in this fresh feminist take on how to address and counteract systemic sexism in ways that benefit us all.

Includes interviews with pioneering women such as:

Baroness Hale
Mary Beard
Bernadine Evaristo
Mary McAleese
Julia Gillard
Dolly Alderton and Pandora Sykes
Cherie Blair
Liz Truss
Amber Rudd
Frances Morris
Laura Bates
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‘Hugely exciting’ – Emily Maitlis

‘Deeply researched, profoundly thoughtful and a book very much for the here and now: Mary Ann Sieghart’s The Authority Gap is the book she was probably born to write’ – Andrew Marr

‘At last here is a credible roadmap that is capable of taking women from the margins to the centre by bridging the authority gap that holds back even the best and most talented of women. – Mary McAleese, Former President of Ireland

Imagine if it was possible to have the perfect sexual relationship without compromise, eat meat without killing animals, have babies without the need to bear them, and choose the time of our painless death. Life would be better, right?

All over the globe, people are trying to make this a reality. They want to use technology to solve the thorniest problems of humanity. But what if these ‘problems’ are the very things that make us human?

Join Jenny Kleeman on an entertaining, thought-provoking adventure to a place where sex robots and vegan meat are no longer science fiction – right here, right now.