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A bold reinterpretation of economics and history revealing why technology does not inevitably lead to shared prosperity, and how we must redirect innovation in the age of AI to benefit all. A thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make it clear that progress depends on the choices we make about technology. New ways of organizing production and communication can either serve the narrow interests of an elite or become the foundation for widespread prosperity. At no point has this been truer than the crossroads we face today. The transformation of work by digital technologies and AI could make life better for most people, or possibly much worse - depending on the economic, social, and political choices we make. Through powerful, illuminating examples, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson fundamentally change how we see the world. The wealth generated by technological improvements in agriculture during the European Middle Ages was captured by the nobility and used to build grand c

From Daron Acemoglu, 2024 Nobel laureate in economics and coauthor ofWhy Nations Fail, an ambitious and expansive inquiry into the biggest story in global politics over the last hundred years: the rise and fall of liberal democracy."A very important work and a must-read." —Thomas Piketty, #1New York Timesbestselling author ofCapital in the Twenty-First CenturyThe dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 raised hopes that we were one step closer to the triumph of liberalism. Soon, many predicted, we would all be living in functional liberal democracies. Sustained economic growth would benefit all segments of society and war would be a relic of the past. A generation later, one can only ask: What happened?Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu argues in this powerful book that liberal democracy flourished when it pursued its core promises of shared prosperity, democratic governance, and the free pursuit of knowledge. But liberalism, a philosophy built to challenge power, never fully adjusted to be