Tech platforms manipulate attention extract wealth and deepen inequality. In this new book
Tim Wu ( The Attention Merchants ) explains how we can reclaim control and create a balanced
economy that works for everyone. “The magic of Tim Wu’s The Age of Extraction is its
simplicity. Wu deftly breaks down one of the greatest challenges of our age—the unaccountable
power of tech platforms—into such digestible pieces that the solutions for what to do become
dead obvious. Essential reading.”—Karen Hao author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in
Sam Altman’s OpenAI "It’s not just in your head—your online life is draining your wallet....
[ The Age of Extraction is] a sharp and eye-opening introduction to how we arrived at platform
capitalism—where no good click goes unmonetized.”— Kirkus Reviews Our world is dominated by a
handful of tech platforms. They provide great conveniences and entertainment but also stand as
some of the most effective instruments of wealth extraction ever invented seizing immense
amounts of money data and attention from all of us. An economy driven by digital platforms
and AI influence offers the potential to enrich us and also threatens to marginalize entire
industries widen the wealth gap and foster a two-class nation. As technology evolves and our
markets adapt can society cultivate a better life for everyone? Is it possible to balance
economic growth and egalitarianism or are we too far gone? Tim Wu—the preeminent scholar and
former White House official who coined the phrase “net neutrality”—explores the rise of
platform power and details the risks and rewards of working within such systems. The Age of
Extraction tells the story of an Internet that promised widespread wealth and democracy in the
1990s and 2000s only to create new economic classes and aid the spread of autocracy instead.
Wu frames our current moment with lessons from recent history—from generative AI and predictive
social data to the antimonopoly and crypto movements—and envisions a future where technological
advances can serve the greatest possible good. Concise and hopeful The Age of Extraction
offers consequential proposals for taking back control in order to achieve a better economic
balance and prosperity for all.
