Guardrails
Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI
Published on 19. August 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-0-691-25774-7 (ISBN)
Description
How society can shape individual actions in times of uncertainty
When we make decisions, our thinking is informed by societal norms, "guardrails" that guide our decisions, like the laws and rules that govern us. But what are good guardrails in today's world of overwhelming information flows and increasingly powerful technologies, such as artificial intelligence? Based on the latest insights from the cognitive sciences, economics, and public policy, Guardrails offers a novel approach to shaping decisions by embracing human agency in its social context.
In this visionary book, Urs Gasser and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger show how the quick embrace of technological solutions can lead to results we don't always want, and they explain how society itself can provide guardrails more suited to the digital age, ones that empower individual choice while accounting for the social good, encourage flexibility in the face of changing circumstances, and ultimately help us to make better decisions as we tackle the most daunting problems of our times, such as global injustice and climate change.
Whether we change jobs, buy a house, or quit smoking, thousands of decisions large and small shape our daily lives. Decisions drive our economies, seal the fate of democracies, create war or peace, and affect the well-being of our planet. Guardrails challenges the notion that technology should step in where our own decision making fails, laying out a surprisingly human-centered set of principles that can create new spaces for better decisions and a more innovative and prosperous society.
When we make decisions, our thinking is informed by societal norms, "guardrails" that guide our decisions, like the laws and rules that govern us. But what are good guardrails in today's world of overwhelming information flows and increasingly powerful technologies, such as artificial intelligence? Based on the latest insights from the cognitive sciences, economics, and public policy, Guardrails offers a novel approach to shaping decisions by embracing human agency in its social context.
In this visionary book, Urs Gasser and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger show how the quick embrace of technological solutions can lead to results we don't always want, and they explain how society itself can provide guardrails more suited to the digital age, ones that empower individual choice while accounting for the social good, encourage flexibility in the face of changing circumstances, and ultimately help us to make better decisions as we tackle the most daunting problems of our times, such as global injustice and climate change.
Whether we change jobs, buy a house, or quit smoking, thousands of decisions large and small shape our daily lives. Decisions drive our economies, seal the fate of democracies, create war or peace, and affect the well-being of our planet. Guardrails challenges the notion that technology should step in where our own decision making fails, laying out a surprisingly human-centered set of principles that can create new spaces for better decisions and a more innovative and prosperous society.
Reviews / Votes
"An impressively detailed and useful book that is also short, fascinating, and readable. . . . I have never before encountered so much clarity about the full context of governance and how all its components relate to AI."---Joanna Bryson, Science "Guardrails is meticulously researched, insightful and cleanly argued."---Jeffrey Mazo, Survival: Global Politics and StrategyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
370 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-25774-7 (9780691257747)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Urs Gasser is professor of public policy, governance, and innovative technology and dean of the School of Social Sciences and Technology at the Technical University of Munich. His books include (with John Palfrey) Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age. Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger is professor of internet governance and regulation at the University of Oxford. His books include Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age (Princeton).