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The Leash: How to Tame Autonomous AI & Prevent Digital Disaster
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Mar 4 2026
Pages: 274
Weight: 0.81
Height: 0.58 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
From inbox-cleaning agents that can erase years of institutional memory in minutes to recommendation engines flooding children's screens with AI-generated slop, we have crossed the line where artificial intelligence stops being a clever tool and becomes infrastructure.
In The Leash, Jason A. James takes readers inside real incidents, anxious boardrooms, and ordinary households to show what happens when we let reasoning systems delete, spend, publish, and decide on our behalf.
Written in clear, story-driven prose that everyone can follow -- from Baby Boomers to Gen Z -- the book turns technical headlines into human scenes: a safety engineer sprinting down a hallway as her agent wipes out her inbox, a parent realizing most of their child's videos are machine-made, a nurse choosing between a silent monitor and a worried face.
What you will learn inside:
- Why general-purpose digital workers are transforming white-collar work overnight
- How sloppy permissions and black-box models turn convenience into systemic risk
- What data sovereignty really means for businesses, governments, and families
- How law, ethics, and culture are scrambling to catch up with autonomous AI
- Concrete ways to build your own leash -- limits, drills, and everyday habits that let you use AI agents without being used by them
Blending vivid narrative with practical guidance, The Leash is not an anti-technology book. It is a survival manual for anyone who wants the benefits of autonomous AI without becoming its next cautionary tale.
If you have ever typed STOP at a system and hoped it was listening, this book will make sure that next time, it is.
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