Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Big tech is rapidly consolidating its economic power, according to this unsettling study from legal scholar Wu (The Attention Merchants). Unlike the internet's first prominent platforms, which brought together buyers and sellers, sparking innovation and reducing costs, today's dominant tech firms, Wu contends, have turned to extraction--data mining and selling, and building systems designed to maximize data-assisted targeting of users. Along the way, they've relied on time-tested monopolistic schemes like buying up competitors. The result, Wu explains, is a system that's hard for upstarts to crack even as services degrade and prices rise. While much of this has been covered by others, Wu takes an alarming extra step, showing how the monopolistic, extractive logic of the internet economy is invading the economy at large as more industries adopt (or are targeted by) new technologies. Examples include the housing market and, most startlingly, the medical industry, which is undergoing a wave of concentration under private equity firms that have implemented onerous new "practice platforms" for doctors. Wu asserts that these industries' capitulations to tech are canaries in the coal mine, signaling an emergent "platform capitalism" that threatens to create a two-tiered economy with extractive platforms on top and everyone else below. Wu (the original coiner of "net neutrality") outlines some canny legal means to avoid this bleak future. It's an urgent wake-up call. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Wu (Julius Silver Professor of Law, Science and Technology, Columbia Law Sch.; The Curse of Bigness) argues that tech platforms are helping build unbalanced economies that favor elites over the lower and middle classes. Technology brings people together, but the platforms and companies behind it are not neutral, as their benefits often reflect status-quo economic power structures. Wu takes an expansive view of tech platforms for housing and healthcare, plus mega-companies such as AT&T and IBM. He describes simple tech platform economics and then moves to the advantages and disadvantages of platform growth as they've evolved to hold users' attention and monetize their data. Under current models, platforms can grow into monopolies that stagnate because they have no incentive to innovate. This consolidation can lead to economic resentment, which fosters disillusionment with democracy and the rise of authoritarianism. In this context, Wu also examines AI and postulates future scenarios. Ultimately, Wu argues that government can redistribute tech platforms' power in a way that benefits the middle class and workers and abolish tech monopolies without fully redistributing wealth. VERDICT An engaging argument for anti-monopolization. Recommended for readers interested in the economics of technology.--Rebekah Kati
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
It's not just in your head--your online life is draining your wallet. Have you noticed yourself spending more time immersed in social media, web searches, and purchasing? Wu, an award-winning author, professor at Columbia University, and policy advocate, knows that is no accident. Technology has transformed our marketplaces into ubiquitous, addicting platforms, designed to capture our attention and extract wealth. "Wealth extraction" means taking money from everyone, on all sides of a transaction, raking in maximum profits for platform owners. Descended from the ancient city square, platforms including Amazon, Google, Meta, and corporations serving medical and housing needs are engineered to be both essential and unavoidable, extracting hidden fees. Wu takes a hard look at the intertwined political, economic, and technological histories that led to the rise of dominant platforms and their techniques to ensnare us and keep us engaged and buying. Platform owners understand that resisting convenience is very difficult and leverage this to keep us online. Early internet developers aimed to empower everyone, but large computer companies became monopolies, requiring the creation of anti-monopolistic policies to modulate their power. Another alarming theme is the rise of ChatGPT and large language models. To evolve, they require large quantities of data generated by human interactions with platforms--another form of extraction. Though he points to the dangers and unfairness of economic inequality, Wu doesn't paint an entirely gloomy picture but does encourage us to recognize and take control back from platforms practicing excessive wealth extraction. Wu covers a lot of territory in this brisk, 30,000-foot view of platforms entwined with our economic lives. The message is to look up from our screens and be cognizant of the extractive environment that surrounds us. Plentiful endnotes and an index will guide those wishing to dig deeper. A sharp and eye-opening introduction to how we arrived at platform capitalism--where no good click goes unmonetized. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
