Alex Salkever
Alex Salkever is a writer, futurist, and technology expert with a wealth of experience spanning more than two decades. His expertise lies in the convergence of technology, business, and society, covering a wide range of cutting-edge fields including AI, robotics, green energy, genetic engineering, cloud computing, virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles.
He is the co-author of YOUR HAPPINESS WAS HACKED: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain—and How to Fight Back and THE DRIVER IN THE DRIVERLESS CAR: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future – a McKinsey/Financial Times Book of the Year finalist.
Alex has held senior technology executive positions at multiple Silicon Valley companies, ranging from startups to tech giants. As a respected thought leader, he contributes to leading publications such as Fortune, Marketwatch, CNBC, and Foreign Affairs, and is the former Technology Editor at BusinessWeek.com.
He speaks about the future of technology and its implications for society.
YOUR HAPPINESS WAS HACKED
“Technology is a great servant but a terrible master. This is the most important book ever written about one of the most significant aspects of our lives–the consequences of our addiction to online technology and how we can liberate ourselves and our children from it.” -Dean Ornish, M.D. Founder & President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF, Author, The Spectrum
“Wadhwa and Salkever have written a great book to help us understand our addiction to technology and suggest what we can do about it. They offer a menu of concrete steps we can take in our personal lives to use technology to our advantage without being controlled by it.” –Andres Oppenheimer, columnist for the Miami Herald, joint winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize, and author of Innovate or Die!
“Chock-full of suggestions for how corporate titans, public officials, and the general public can regain control over their lives . . . offers a road map to sensible constructive solutions.” -Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies and Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management, Yale School of Management
“Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever provide valuable insights and recommendations on how to achieve the delicate balance that will lead to a happier and more fulfilling life.” -Sophie V. Vandebroek, Chief Operating Officer, IBM Research
“This book should be called How to Survive the Future. Wadhwa and Salkever provide practical, actionable thoughts that can help you survive—and thrive—tomorrow and beyond.” -Sree Sreenivasan, former Chief Digital Officer, New York City, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Columbia University
Books, Films & Projects
Clips
Alex Salkever Sizzle Reel
AI, Communications and You
The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Can Change The Future
Alex Salkever debates the impact of AI on jobs.
News
Announcing the re-release of THE DRIVER IN THE DRIVERLESS CAR: How Your Technology Choices Create the Future
A completely revised and updated version of the 2017 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year is now available with a bonus chapter. Salkever and Wadhwa offer us three questions to ask about every emerging technology: Does it have the potential to benefit everyone equally? What are its risks and rewards? And does it promote autonomy or dependence? Looking at a broad array of advances in this light, they emphasizes that the future is up to us to create—that even if our hands are not on the wheel, we will decide the driverless car’s destination.