Books addressing the complexities of artificial intelligence, the competition for natural resources, and the fluctuating fortunes of billionaires have made it onto the longlist for this year’s Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award. Under a newly formed three-year partnership with global asset manager Schroders and Nikkei, the FT’s parent company, the 2023 award is set to be highly acclaimed. Fifteen books made the cut from a pool of over 500 submissions, covering a wide range of topics such as cryptocurrencies, China’s influence on global business, climate change, job advancement, and overcoming failure.
One of the books on the longlist, “Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity,” written by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, dives into the tensions created by rapid technological advancements. Acemoglu and Johnson, known for their previous collaboration on “Why Nations Fail,” trace the history of technological breakthroughs and their socioeconomic effects, emphasizing the need for careful management to ensure equitable distribution of benefits.
Another notable inclusion is “The Coming Wave: AI, Power and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest Dilemma” by Mustafa Suleyman. Suleyman, a co-founder of DeepMind, a prominent AI company now part of Google, explores generative AI, synthetic biology, and quantum computing. Together with Michael Bhaskar, Suleyman warns of the potential catastrophic consequences if society fails to navigate the forthcoming wave of change and emphasizes the importance of containing it.
The longlist also encompasses Kashmir Hill’s “Your Face Belongs to Us: The Secretive Startup Dismantling Your Privacy.” Hill sheds light on the privacy concerns arising from Clearview AI, an app claiming to identify individuals based on facial recognition technology. This investigative account exposes the pitfalls of data-mining companies exploiting new technologies.
The upcoming book “Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech” by Brian Merchant delves into the historical roots of resistance against technology, drawing parallels between the Luddites of the Industrial Revolution and contemporary workers affected by disruptive technological advancements. Merchant, a former FT award finalist, argues that the conflict initiated by the Luddite uprising shapes the current relationship between work and technology.
MIT professor Zeynep Ton offers evidence-based recommendations in her book “The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone’s Work,” suggesting a system to break the cycle of bad jobs leading to worse ones. Ton’s Good Jobs Institute has successfully implemented strategies to reduce staff turnover, enhance productivity, and improve worker satisfaction by moving away from short-term contracts and low wages.
Regarding the future of money, Rachel O’Dwyer’s “Tokens: The Future of Money in the Age of the Platform” explores new forms of currency like phone credit, game tokens, and even customer data itself. O’Dwyer argues that these instruments, which have always existed alongside traditional economies, pose new threats as digitization makes their use ubiquitous. “Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud” by Ben McKenzie and Jacob Silverman delves deeper into the world of cryptocurrencies, questioning the foundations of digital currency hype and uncovering potential fraud.
In the context of climate change, Simon Sharpe’s “Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change” highlights the urgent need to decarbonize the global economy at a rate five times faster than previous efforts. He suggests pragmatic approaches for scientists, economists, and diplomats to address this challenge effectively. Siddharth Kara’s “Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives” investigates the ethical issues surrounding the mining of cobalt, an essential component of rechargeable batteries. Kara uncovers human rights abuses associated with cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ed Conway’s “Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future” explores the origins and uses of key minerals essential to our daily lives, underscoring our reliance on materials such as sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. The book vividly depicts how these materials shape our existence and the expanding global influence of China.
For a glimpse into the lives of the super-rich, James Stewart and Rachel Abrams present “Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Hollywood Media Empire,” a gripping exposé of the fierce struggle for control over media mogul Sumner Redstone’s empire. Katherine Clarke’s “Billionaires’ Row: Tycoons, High Rollers, and the Epic Race to Build the World’s Most Exclusive Skyscrapers” examines the world of New York real estate entrepreneurs competing to construct luxurious skyscrapers, highlighting the growing wealth disparity between the super-rich and ordinary citizens.
The longlist also features two books focusing on the concept of failure. Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner investigate the fate of megaprojects in “How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration.” Drawing lessons from past failures and successes, they provide insights applicable to various project management challenges. Additionally, Amy Edmondson’s “The Right Kind of Wrong: Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive” emphasizes the importance of embracing failure and taking risks, drawing on her research to guide readers on the path to personal and professional growth.
The winner of the £30,000 Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year award, along with the shortlisted titles, will be announced on September 21.
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