Read recently and recommend:
How to Stay Smart in a Smart World: Why Human Intelligence Still Beats Algorithms by Gerd Gigerenzer, Penguin, 2023, 311 pp., ISBN: 978-0-141-99504-5 https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/321144/how-to-stay-smart-in-a-smart-world-by-gigerenzer-gerd/9780141995045
From the introduction:
I wrote this book to help you understand the potential of digital technologies, such as AI, but even more important, the limitations and risks of these technologies. As these technologies become more widespread and dominant, I want to provide you with strategies and methods to stay in charge of your life rather than let yourself get steamrolled. Should we simply lean back and relax while software makes our personal decisions? Definitely not. Staying smart does not mean obliviously trusting technology, nor does it mean anxiously mistrusting it. Instead, it is about understanding what AI can do and what remains the fancy of marketing hype and techno-religious faiths. It is also about one’s personal strength to control a device rather than being remote-controlled by it.
Staying smart is not the same as having digital skills for using technology. Educational programs worldwide seek to increase digital skills by buying tablets and smart whiteboards for classrooms and teaching children how to use them. But these programs rarely teach children how to understand the risks delivered by digital technology. As a consequence, most digital natives shockingly cannot tell hidden ads from real news and are taken in by the appearance of a website. For instance, a study of 3,446 digital natives showed that 96 percent of them do not know how to check the trustworthiness of sites and posts.
Two videos with Gerd Gigerenzer:
How do smart people make smart decisions? | Gerd Gigerenzer | TEDxNorrköping https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lg7G8TMe_A 19min
How to Stay Smart in a Smart World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKjH-VJ12dg 68min EconTalk host Russ Roberts talks with Gerd Gigerenzer - 8/1/22
Review by Michael Laver, NYU https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/123438/1/Laver_on_Gigerenzer.pdf PDF 6 pages.
One of the researchers mentioned in the book:
Dr Epstein: Internet content is CONTROLLED by TWO Big Brothers | MOATS with George Galloway Ep 277 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMTnkIOVix4 19 min
Started: Fri, Jan 16, 2026
