Our reviewers sampled an array of nonfiction books focused on artificial intelligence:

Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI, by Yuval Noah Harari (Random House)

An uncorrected mistake in the Stone Age could destroy at most a city; in the Silicon Age, it could destroy civilization, argues Israeli historian and philosopher Yuval Harari in this sweeping survey. Starting with the simplest type of “information network,” the story, Harari develops the thesis that information networks are not necessarily about communicating truth but connecting humans based on shared mythologies. AI is a new kind of information network that is more powerful than anything humanity has seen before, he argues. The solution to AI’s risks is not technological but societal and political: Humans must unite to build strong self-correcting mechanisms. To do that, they’ll need to agree on key priorities and trust each other more. – Christa Case Bryant

Why We Wrote This

Everyone from tech entrepreneurs to philosophers to novelists is grappling with the implications of artificial intelligence. Monitor reviewers gathered 11 important AI-related books to help you understand what’s going on.

The Age of AI: And Our Human Future, by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher (Back Bay Books)

As a primer on artificial intelligence, this book delivers philosophical and practical insights that are approachable and helpful. Humans prize their own abilities to observe, analyze, and arrive at a definition of reality. What if, the authors argue, AI uncovers layers of reality that exist outside of human knowledge? “In many cases, AI will suggest new solutions or directions that will bear the stamp of another, nonhuman, form of learning and logical evaluation,” they write. The implications are far-reaching. In the past, humans developed technologies to serve as tools; increasingly, humans are partnering with AI. And beyond that, governments and industries are creating more autonomous AI systems, whose learning speeds outpace the time needed by humans to evaluate the potential risks. The global security ramifications are discussed in detail. – April Austin

I Am Not a Robot: My Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything, by Joanna Stern (Harper)

Somewhere between the claim that AI will usher in a beautiful new era of humanity and the prediction that it will destroy the world sits Joanna Stern, evaluating whether an AI robot can actually fold her laundry. Ms. Stern, a former tech writer for The Wall Street Journal, wrote “I Am Not a Robot” as a guide to the future for ordinary people. She decides that over the course of one year, she will use AI in all ways possible, letting the technology drive her cars, write her emails, and act as her therapist. In chapters both conversational and clear-sighted, she shares what worked, what went terribly wrong, and what she learned about a future that is much closer than many people realize. “I Am Not a Robot” is not the deepest, most philosophical book about AI out there. But that is the point – and part of its appeal. Instead, it is a primer on what the technology is and what it can do, in everything from education to music to romance. That doesn’t mean Ms. Stern doesn’t ponder the big questions. She does, but in a way that is accessible and useful. – Stephanie Hanes

AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How To Tell the Difference, by Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor (Princeton University Press)

“AI Snake Oil” offers a clear-eyed parsing of the myths and realities of AI. The authors provide a refreshingly jargon-free explanation of how generative AI works, and how to distinguish between the distinct types and applications of AI. They take a pin to the balloon of AI hype, arguing that inflated perceptions of AI as an existential threat cloud the less dramatic – but very real – dangers the technology poses. The authors seek to empower readers to make their own informed judgments, arguing: “Describing AI as unknowable reduces our agency by positioning AI as something that we can never understand and therefore never challenge.” – Caitlin Babcock

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How To Think About Artificial Intelligence – Before It’s Too Late, by Cory Doctorow (MCD)

Training his critical eye on artificial intelligence, the longtime science fiction author and activist Cory Doctorow lays out the case for maintaining a society of “centaurs,” or humans aided by machines, as opposed to “reverse centaurs” – people “conscripted into acting as an assistant” to those very machines. Choice is key. Doctorow busts some myths, advocates for creators, considers the potential “residue” of a popped AI bubble, and describes ways AI does – and can – benefit our world. From his opinionated, passionate, and substantiated take, readers can form, centaur-like, their own AI perspectives. – Erin Douglass

The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence, by Sebastian Mallaby (Penguin Press)

Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis is many things: a Nobel laureate, a chess prodigy, the son of impoverished immigrant parents in North London. Some of his rivals in the AI industry – like Elon Musk – regard him as an “evil genius.” But who is the man who promised “to build a Manhattan Project for AI,” really? Journalist Sebastian Mallaby spent three years chronicling Hassabis and DeepMind, logging about 30 hours with the man himself and interviewing those in his orbit – including his detractors. What results is a breathless biography of one man’s quest for scientific enlightenment in the age of AI. – Mackenzie Farkus

The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future, by Keach Hagey (W.W. Norton & Company)

Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey traces Sam Altman’s path from his childhood in Missouri, through “the blip” of his 2023 firing and rehiring, to his ascent to the pinnacle of power in the AI revolution. “The person who emerged is a brilliant dealmaker with a need for speed and a love of risk,” Hagey writes. She focuses on the forces that have shaped Altman, such as his tutelage under Paul Graham, the founder of Silicon Valley’s startup incubator Y Combinator, which Altman ran before he co-founded OpenAI. The biography, drawn from interviews with Altman as well as with more than 250 of his friends, family, and associates, casts a balanced portrait of a figure who is by turns self-effacing and cognizant of his unique place in history. – Chelsea Sheasley

Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, by Karen Hao (Penguin Press)

In this deeply sourced book, readers get a behind-the-scenes look into the beginnings of OpenAI as a small nonprofit research lab in pursuit of AI for the public good to the now-billion-dollar company behind ChatGPT. Tech journalist Karen Hao raises questions about OpenAI’s secretive and competitive nature in spite of its early emphasis, with a focus not only on internal turmoil but the negative impacts of AI, from the massive amounts of energy needed to power data centers to low wages for data work in the Global South. – Mackenzie Farkus

Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, by Vauhini Vara (Pantheon)

In “Searches,” Vara traces her experiences with AI from adolescence to adulthood, in what is just as much personal memoir as biting social critique. While her initial dependence on technology remains on the periphery, she is soon pushing AI on its potential. How well can it translate her wobbly Spanish into readable English text? Can it untwist the complicated emotions surrounding her sister’s death and turn them into poignant prose? By revealing her own inner turmoil regarding her use of AI and other technologies, Vara touches on broader public sentiment: While ethically or morally she (and we) may not want to use Google or ChatGPT, she does (and we do) anyway because it’s cheaper, easier, and more convenient. In Vara’s telling, readers must decide for themselves. – Colette Davidson

Our reviewers also covered two works of fiction focused on AI:

Culpability, by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau)

Noah’s wife, Lorelei, is a professor of AI ethics. Can we train machines to be good, she wonders, in the same way we train ourselves to be virtuous? That question becomes more than just academic. When their family’s self-driving minivan causes a fatal collision, a hunt begins for who’s to blame: the vehicle’s autonomous programming or the 17-year-old at the wheel. Come for the family drama, stay for the big ideas. “Culpability” examines the consequences of ceding control of everything from AC units to drone warfare to AI. Lorelei observes that “a strict division between human and machine culpability is quickly becoming untenable, creating a landscape where ethical norms strain under unfamiliar weights.” With riveting storytelling, the novel could never have been authored by AI. – Stephen Humphries

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Valet, by J.P. Lacrampe (Saga Press)

Fiction, dwelling outside the constraints of nonfiction, offers a different prism for considering the what ifs of disruptors and inventions. Here, author J.P. Lacrampe imagines: What could a world shot-through with AI look like? Let Cy, the delightful narrator paint the picture; he’s a Verified Artificial-Learning-Enhanced Techbot, or VALET, with the good manners, wry asides, and sizable skills of a butler of yore, if he needed recharging. Set in a future San Francisco of whizzing drones and autonomous transportation, the story follows Grayson, the slacker son of a wealthy tech entrepreneur; his type A sister who now runs the family business; and the various parties who’d like nothing more than to whisk that business away. It’s ultimately a tale of evolution for both man and machine. – Erin Douglass