Book Talk: The Rulers: Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud with Cecilia Rikap

Cecilia Rikap in conversation with Daniel Weissmann, will discuss her forthcoming book Corporate Power in the Age of AI and the Cloud.

Join the Technology, Internet, and Policy Group (TIP) to discuss how capitalism's rulers are not abstract entities or shadowy operators, but instead cloud hegemons that subsume the world through the exercise intellectual monopolies. Giants like Disney, McDonalds, Nike or Walmart depend on them to use AI for knowledge and value extraction and for disciplining workers. States see some of their core functions sequestered. Innovation is not a free and neutral game, but a hierarchy topped by the rulers.

Rikap's forthcoming book is grounded in a unique trove of 112 interviews at the world's largest firms and data on venture capital, acquisitions, open source, AI conferences and patents. They picture a map of the complexities and political implications of corporate power. 

Her book, The Rulers. Corporate Porwer in the Age of AI and the Cloud. Is due to be published in August 26 with Verso Books, and is currently available for pre-order.

Cecilia Rikap is Associate Professor of Economics and Head of Research at UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. In her book, she develops a new theoretical framework grounded in 112 interviews at some of the world's largest corporations, venture capital data, acquisitions, open source, AI conferences and patents. Her findings show a map of the complexities and political implications of corporate power.