Even if you never plan to touch a chatbot or toy with smart tech, you can’t afford to snub them entirely. So, where to begin? Artificial intelligence (AI), at its simplest, enables machines to mimic human thought and behaviour. The possibilities seem endless, as do the questions.
For some, AI is an empowering assistant that brilliantly boosts productivity, streamlines routine tasks and frees up time for more creative activities. For others, AI is a glorified plagiarism engine flooding the net with plausible but false content and posing an existential threat. After all, Elon Musk has likened superintelligent AI to nuclear weapons.
These three books will help you grasp what AI can, and cannot, do and where it might lead us next. Some offer practical guidance for everyday use, others confront the ethical minefield. Whether you’re a novice, a sceptic or a curious convert, this reading list will help you understand the possibilities and pitfalls of the technical revolution reshaping our future.
If you read only one non-fiction book this year, make it one of these three.
Co-Intelligence: The Definitive, Bestselling Guide to Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick, Foyles, £16.99
If you’re baffled about where to begin, Mollick is your man. His bestseller is a relatively short and untechy survival guide to implementing AI in everyday life and work, and its long-term implications. The audiobook runs under five hours making it a painless crash course. Mollick lays out four principles for getting the best out of AI. Invite AI to the table but know its limitations; stay the critical human in charge assessing if AI’s outputs align with your goals; treat AI like a persona you can shape; and remember that this is the very worst AI that you’ll ever use. Lest you forget, this technology is improving by the day. This book is optimistic and practical without being naïve or dry – an excellent first read on AI.
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari, Waterstones, £10.99
From the author of Sapiens comes an altogether different – but equally important – proposition to Mollick’s how-to-use AI guide. Harari’s book about human history doubles up as a stark warning about the very real dangers of machine learning and misinformation. He examines how the power of information networks, from cave paintings and stories to the internet, have shaped, and sometimes shattered, civilisation. AI, he argues, is simply the next great network. But unlike those before it, AI’s ability to manipulate truth and spread disinformation as facts at such scale makes it uniquely dangerous. The audiobook clocks in at 17 hours, but his narrative style and critical content makes it worth the commitment. This book isn’t about how to use AI; it’s about why we should all be deeply wary of it.
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily M Bender and Alex Hanna, Blackwell’s, £17.45
If Mollick is the AI cheerleader and Harari the critical historian, Bender and Hanna are the sceptics. Their mission is to burst the AI bubble. This book calls AI out for being merely hype, marketing spin and tech propaganda. Large language models, they argue, are little more than ‘giant plagiarism machines’ dulling critical thought, undermining jobs and enriching only those in Silicon Valley. By citing real-world examples, the author expose AI’s darker side. They reference the lunacy of chatbots replacing National Eating Disorders Association helplines and IBM’s long-standing reminder that ‘a computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.’ Bracing and uncompromising, this is a book for anyone curious about AI’s downsides. It urgers readers to spot the hype, recognise the risks and push back. As Brain Eno puts it, this book is ‘an honest guide’ in the blizzard of hype.
