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, the new book "Guardrails" offers a novel approach to shaping decisions by embracing human agency in its social context. In brief: The book explores the importance of establishing guardrails to manage the power dynamics in the digital age.

Written by Urs Gasser (Professor of Public Policy, Governance and Innovative Technology at TU Munich) and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford), the book shows how the quick embrace of technological solutions can lead to results we don’t always want.

The two authors 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.

In a recent member’s call we were joined by Viktor who took us through the thinking behind the book, how human decisions are flawed and also how just looking at AI through the lens of misinformation, bias or privacy is short-sighted. The problem is bigger. The book is about principles for good decisions, and Viktor shared quite a few memorable examples.