Dr. Carissa Véliz

Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI

Carissa looks at the many ways prediction shapes our everyday lives, explaining how putting too much stock in others’ predictions makes us vulnerable to charlatans, con artists, dubious technology, and self-deception. Her research reveals that AI is more likely to increase risk than decrease it and that a free and robust society requires not more prediction, but better preparation.

Dr. Carissa Véliz

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute of Ethics and AI, Oxford University

Carissa is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford. She is the recipient of the 2021 Herbert A. Simon Award for Outstanding Research in Computing and Philosophy. She is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics and the author of Privacy Is Power and Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI. She advises policymakers and companies around the world on privacy and the ethics of AI.

"Carissa Véliz so cleverly deflates the hype that spouts from the prophets of Silicon Valley -- and in the process, offers a sharp new way to examine how people exercise power in our world."

Karen Hao, author of Empire of AI

Dr. Carissa Véliz

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute of Ethics and AI, Oxford University

Carissa is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford. She is the recipient of the 2021 Herbert A. Simon Award for Outstanding Research in Computing and Philosophy. She is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics and the author of Privacy Is Power and Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI. She advises policymakers and companies around the world on privacy and the ethics of AI.