Includes bibliographical references (pages [309]-336) and index.

"In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne take us into the cockpit of one of the world's largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no preexisting playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of artificial intelligence, big tech's relationship to inequality, and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying "Microsoft memoir," the book pulls back the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company's most crucial recent decision points, as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. There are huge ramifications for communities and countries, and Brad Smith provides a thoughtful and urgent contribution to that effort"-- Foreword / Bill Gates -- Introduction: The Cloud: The World's Filing Cabinet -- Surveillance: A Three-Hour Fuse -- Technology and Public Safety: "I'd Rather be a Loser than a Liar" -- Privacy: A Fundamental Human Right -- Cybersecurity: The Wake-up Call for the World -- Protecting Democracy: "A Republic, If You Can Keep it" -- Social Media: The Freedom that Drives us Apart -- Digital Diplomacy: The Geopolitics of Technology -- Consumer Privacy: "The Guns Will Turn" -- Rural Broadband: The Electricity of the Twenty-first Century -- The Talent Gap: The People Side of Technology -- AI and Ethics: Don't Ask What Computers Can Do, Ask What They Should Do -- AI And Facial Recognition: Do Our Faces Deserve the Same Protection as Our Phones? -- AI and the Workforce: The Day the Horse Lost its Job -- The United States and China: A Bipolar Tech World -- Democratizing the Future: The Need for an Open Data Revolution -- Conclusion: Managing Technology that is Bigger than Ourselves.