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Orly Lobel

Official Website of Award-Winning Author, including her newest book

 The Equality Machine

FEATURED SPEAKER AND WRITER FOR:

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Watch Orly Lobel's new TEDx talk

"How We Can Build Equality Machines:

A Call to Action!"

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The 19th Annual Colloquium

on Scholarship in Employment

and Labor Law

UPCOMING EVENTS

Yale (virtual): The Human Rights Workshop – September 5, 2024

Albany, NY (virtual): Albany Law Symposium – November, 2024

AALS Annual Meeting: “Good News for Workers? Progressive Development in Workplace Law” Panel – January 10, 2025

BOOKS
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THE EQUALITY MACHINE

YOU DON'T OWN ME

TALENT WANTS TO BE FREE

LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW AND ECONOMICS

Books
The Equality Machine
THE EQUALITY MACHINE

Much has been written about the challenges tech presents to equality and democracy. But we can either criticize big data and automation or steer it to do better. Lobel makes a compelling argument that while we cannot stop technological development, we can direct its course according to our most fundamental values.
 
With provocative insights in every chapter, Lobel masterfully shows that digital technology frequently has a comparative advantage over humans in detecting discrimination, correcting historical exclusions, subverting long-standing stereotypes, and addressing the world’s thorniest problems: climate, poverty, injustice, literacy, accessibility, speech, health, and safety. 
 
Lobel's vivid examples—from labor markets to dating markets—provide powerful evidence for how we can harness technology for good. The book’s incisive analysis and elegant storytelling will change the debate about technology and restore human agency over our values.

REVIEWS

"[Lobel] agrees with those who fear artificial intelligence can be biased. But, in a brilliant act of intellectual jiu-jitsu, she argues that the answer is not to slow the technology, but to speed it up to solve those defects and achieve social progress." – The Economist (Best Books of 2022) "What’s right with technology and artificial intelligence? Outside Silicon Valley, few people ask the question that way. Lobel, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego, does, beginning by recounting her daughter Elinor’s type 1 diabetes — and the smartphone apps that help safely track her blood-sugar level and insulin pump. She then crafts a sweeping call for designing technology and AI with quality and social benefit in mind." – Harvard Magazine "Legal scholar Orly Lobel's The Equality Machine is a masterful analysis of the many 'inequitable dimensions of digital existence.' The book consists of 10 substantive chapters wherein Lobel expertly describes both the opportunities and the discrimination engendered by new artificial technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI)... 'Progress supersedes perfection,' insists Lobel. Rather than perpetuating the idea that technology must meet unattainable measures of fairness before we can move forward, she directs us to leverage the imperfect technologies we already have to make the world a better place." – Science "An enthusiastic yet measured argument for technology’s potential to promote equality across many facets of culture and industry" and a "A compelling, hopeful, potentially divisive look at the future of technology and its ability to positively shape human life." – Kirkus Reviews "Lobel sets out to counter the conventional wisdom that technologies like AI offer more threats than benefits. The book traces a range of examples where the principled and ethical use of big data analysis and AI are being utilized for progressive aims... Some of the most powerful examples of the potential for digital technologies to improve well-being described in The Equality Machine come from the domain of health and health care. Lobel describes the efforts of pioneering physicians and researchers to pair clinicians with algorithms for earlier diagnosis and individualized treatments." – Inside Higher Ed

BOOK TOUR

AALS Annual Meeting: “Good News for Workers? Progressive Development in Workplace Law” Panel – January 10, 2025

Albany, NY (virtual): Albany Law Symposium – November, 2024

Yale (virtual): The Human Rights Workshop – September 5, 2024

Florence, Italy: The State of the Union May 23-25, 2024

San Diego: ABA Annual Dispute Resolution Conference – April 11, 2024

Berlin, Germany: Dynamics of Generative AI Symposium – March 22, 2024

Chicago (virtual): Northeastern – March 21, 2024

Chicago (virtual): Spertus Institute, Critical Conversations – March 17, 2024

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IN THE NEWS

RADIO & TV

"California laws protect [a worker’s] right to moonlight or to work a second job, or a gig. That's as long as there is no legitimate business interest by their company to try and limit that."

"If you're an architect, an attorney, or a graphic designer, online marketplaces allow you to get gigs rather than a full-time job. These aren't just lower-skilled jobs, they're just not full-time employment."

While noncompetes are most common in high-skilled fields like engineering, they’ve also become increasingly prevalent in lower-wage work like “camp counselors, yoga instructors, warehouse employees.” 

"We have seen this in the past where Cal/OSHA has been more stringent, where Cal/OSHA has had higher thresholds of what it deems safe and healthy environments and in fact, we do have empirical work and empirical evidence that it has done a better job in protecting employees."

Radio & TV
PRESS
Contact
CONTACT

For media, research, and consulting, contact me: lobel@sandiego.edu

For speaking engagements, please contact: lisa@chartwellspeakers.com

For review copies of The Equality Machine, photographs, press materials or to schedule an event, please contact Margaret Rogalski, margaret@fortierpr.com

For review copies of You Don't Own Me, please contact at Norton, Erin Lovett, elovett@wwnorton.com

For rights inquiries about my book, please contact my agent at Levine Greenberg Rostan, Lindsay Edgecombe LEdgecombe@LGRLiterary.com

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