TAKING CTRL: How AI is Unfair by Design and What Women Can Do About It

Cristina Criddle

RIGHTS AVAILABLE: All rights with The bks Agency

You might not think you’re interested in technology, but it is very interested in you…

Taking CTRL is an empowering and practical guide for women to counter the inherent bias built into the AI we use every day, from the award-winning journalist, AI specialist and Financial Times tech correspondent, Cristina Criddle.

AI is already woven into virtually every part of our lives. And just like most tech developments in recent times, it has been created by men for men. What say do we get before these products are unleashed on us? Big tech companies would have us believe that AI is too complicated and fast-moving for us to keep up.

Taking CTRL will explore AI’s impact on the opportunities and risks that women encounter daily. It will break down the jargon, challenge assumptions on how the technology should operate and call out where it prioritises male consumers. The result will educate and empower the reader to have a sense of agency and ownership over the products they choose to use, knowing what tech works for them and what trade-offs they are prepared to make to use it.

Covering all the main areas of our lives, such as work, health, dating, travel, money, social interactions and personal safety, the book also features exclusive interviews with female tech executives from some of the world’s most powerful companies at the forefront of AI - Google DeepMind, Meta, OpenAI and Microsoft.  Their unique insights will give behind-the-scenes access into how AI works, taking us into the rooms where decisions that impact our lives are made.

With the data-backed, in-depth analysis of Invisible Women and the relatable and engaging call-to-arms of Women Don’t Owe You Pretty, Criddle encourages the reader to take back control of this complex technology before it is too late.

CRISTINA CRIDDLE is a British award-winning journalist, broadcaster and producer. Having worked extensively at the BBC, she is currently the Financial Times’ tech correspondent, based in San Francisco, where she has broken stories on a number of major tech companies, including China’s influence over TikTok. This story led to the discovery that she had been spied on by TikTok in an attempt to uncover her sources, which they did by hacking the account she ran for her cat, Buffy.