Rebooting the Machines
A New Human Vision for Artificial Intelligence
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: Broadleaf Books (Augsburg Fortress)
- Published: 2026
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Publisher's Description
How do we ensure that AI makes the world better for us all, not just a select few? Dr. Ayanna Howard, who works in robotics and identifies as a Black woman, is accustomed to the ways systems and networks tend to serve the few at the expense of the many. In her groundbreaking new book, she argues that AI, including robotics, is not built with a moral center. That means that if we want it to serve all humanity, we must provide the compass. In this call to action around the moral and ethical questions surrounding AI, Dr. Howard offers the big ideas and practical suggestions needed to shape AI toward a moral and ethical role in the world. Most AI developers aren't trained ethicists and don't always think about the consequences of their creations. Thus, it is up to us all to think deeply about what we value as humans, what we want to accept as good (or good enough) choices in technology's interactions with us, and to educate ourselves to ensure those values--the moral center--are programmed into AI. Dr. Howard, whose AI and robotics research has been supported over three decades by some of the country's top companies and organizations, has long been an AI optimist. In recent years, however, she's seen a shift in the technology that makes her believe the scales of AI are shifting toward the dystopic. While she still believes in the good of AI, the AI utopia she has long envisioned is no longer possible without you--without all of us. In Rebooting the Machines, she reveals how we can all take an active role in shaping artificial intelligence for the good.
Endorsements (11)
“In this urgent, clear-eyed reckoning, Ayanna Howard dismantles both the sci-fi hysteria and the Silicon Valley hype to expose what's actually at stake in AI: how society will contend with a technology that amplifies biases, undermines labor markets, and is concentrating power into the hands of the few.”
“Rebooting the Machines is both a wake-up call and a practical guide, making the case that AI without democratic participation will only serve the few. Essential reading for anyone who believes the public must have a voice in shaping the technologies that shape our lives.”
“AI is influencing every part of our lives, from work to care to how we connect with one another. Ayanna Howard's Rebooting the Machines offers a clear and hopeful case for shaping technology that reflects our humanity, rather than replacing it.”
“Ayanna Howard uses her decades of experience to show us a new vision for AI, and a road map for what every citizen can do to achieve a benevolent future: hold yourself responsible, hold your governments and companies responsible, and use your voice to encourage the fair and equitable use of AI.”
“Rejecting cynical visions of AI as a neutral tool to passively entrust with our futures, the book is an urgent call to all of us to reclaim our right to decide what we want from powerful new technologies--and then demand to see it.”
“Through stories from her personal life, her professional life, and across the worlds of technology and engineering, Ayanna Howard shows how AI systems will only be widely accepted if they can be trusted.”
“Refusing the trend to glorify or demonize AI, Howard delivers a compelling and pragmatic call to action for navigating this disruptive technological era.”
“With the deep technical insight of an engineer, the explanatory skill of an experienced professor, and the compassion of a deeply caring person, Ayanna Howard walks us through the biggest challenges at the boundary of technology and society. Rebooting the Machines is a must-read for anyone hoping 'humankind' and 'the future' play nice together.”
“Dr. Howard's book is both urgent and timeless. Urgent, because algorithmic bias is evident in world-altering events in the news today. And timeless, because the misapprehensions the public and policymakers have about AI are likely to make the problem even worse.”
“Timely, insightful, and required reading as artificial intelligence evolves from a simple tool to a super-intelligent companion.”
“In an era when algorithms increasingly determine what we see, buy, and believe, Howard asks the essential question: Who's accountable? She reveals what's really at stake--not sci-fi apocalypse, but the slow drift of human judgment to opaque systems built on someone else's values. Both unsettling and galvanizing.”
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