Offering a rigorous, fresh perspective on how technology has brought us to this place, Mechanisms of Morality challenges the long-held assumption that technology is an apolitical and amoral force. Having worked in the field of artificial intelligence for over 30 years, Smith reveals the mounting evidence that the mechanical actors in our lives have, or at least express, morals: they're just not the morals of the progressive modern society that we imagined we were moving towards. Instead, as we are just beginning to see--in the US elections and Brexit to name but a few--there are increasing incidences of machine bigotry, greed and the crass manipulation of our basest instincts.