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  • Published: 21 April 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241451533
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Girl Decoded

My Quest to Make Technology Emotionally Intelligent – and Change the Way We Interact Forever




A captivating memoir from a pioneering scientist on a mission to humanise technology and revolutionize how we connect with one another

A captivating memoir that chronicles one woman's mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way.

Now more than ever, we find ourselves unable to express our true feelings through technology. Rana el Kaliouby discovered this when she left Cairo, a newly-married, Muslim woman, to take up her place at Cambridge University to study computer science. Many thousands of miles from home, she began to develop systems to help her better connect with her family. She started to pioneer the new field of Emotional Intelligence (EI). She now runs her company, Affectiva (the industry-leader in this emerging field) that builds EI into our technology and develops systems that understand humans the way we understand one another. This is the fascinating story of her mission to humanise technology and what she learns about humanity along the way.

  • Published: 21 April 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241451533
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 352

Praise for Girl Decoded

Girl Decoded is the kind of honest and inspiring story that will encourage other women to share their experiences and own their power

Tory Burch, founder and executive chairman of Tory Burch LLC

Rana el Kaliouby's vision for how technology should work in parallel with empathy is bold, inspired and hopeful

Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global

Her remarkable life story is a captivating way to understand this new technological frontier: machines with emotional intelligence

Kevin Kelly, futurist, founding editor of Wired, and author of The Inevitable

A poignant and deeply personal tale about love, loss, and coming of age on a new scientific frontier

Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of Stumbling on Happiness

Creating a hopeful, compelling, and abundant future for humanity depends on the work outlined by entrepreneur Rana el Kaliouby in her must-read book, Girl Decoded. It is critical that we embrace a future in which technology enhances our most human qualities, specifically empathy, caring, and emotional intelligence

Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation and coauthor of The Future Is Faster Than You Think

Emotional intelligence in AI is every bit as critical for machines as it is for humans. No one has done more to create that capability than Rana el Kaliouby. This book tells the remarkable story of her pioneering journey, breaking barriers all along the way. A must-read!

Erik Brynjolfsson, professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and coauthor of The Second Machine Age and Machine, Platform, Crowd

Written with kindness, vulnerability, and grace, Girl Decoded reveals the tour de force that is Rana el Kaliouby. Her must-read memoir spurs technologists to follow their conscience and emboldens women all over the globe to fight for their dreams

Dr. Kate Darling, leading expert in robot ethics and research specialist at the MIT Media Lab

This lucid and captivating book by a renowned pioneer of emotion-AI tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: How can we ensure a future where this technology empowers rather than surveils and manipulates us?

Max Tegmark, professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Life 3.0