Not since the Industrial Revolution has technology so fundamentally altered how we work and communicate. These innovations made us more efficient and connected, but they also set off unprecedented changes with consequences we’re still struggling to understand.

Historian and writer Dr. Edward Tenner looks to the past for insights about the unintended impacts of human ingenuity. Tenner is a distinguished scholar at the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation and author of several books, including The Efficiency Paradox: What Big Data Can’t Do.

Whether we’re aware of it or not, social media and algorithms can determine our understanding of the world and even our moods. Dr. Tenner discusses how our online lives can start to meld into our real-life selves. More in the second part of our interview with historian Edward Tenner.

Companies and governments are turning to artificial intelligence to make streets safer, shopping more targeted and health care more accurate. China is one of the countries quickly adopting AI technologies.

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