Brian Christian · W. W. Norton & Company · wwnorton.com
Drawing on interviews with researchers, explores how machine-learning systems can end up at odds with what their makers intend and with human values, and the work to align them.
Worth knowing: Written before ChatGPT, so its examples predate today's chatbots.
BookSep 16, 2025For everyone
Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares · Little, Brown and Company · hachettebookgroup.com
A book for general readers arguing that superhuman AI built with anything like today's methods would develop goals at odds with ours and lead to human extinction, so it must not be built.
Worth knowing: Represents the most pessimistic end of the debate.
BookSep 16, 2025For everyone
Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares · Little, Brown and Company · ifanyonebuildsit.com
Argues that superhuman AI built with current methods would most likely cause human extinction, and that the world should stop its development.
Worth knowing: The authors lead MIRI, which campaigns for a halt. Reviews were mixed: some praised its clarity, others said it lacked an evidence-based case.
BookMay 20, 2025For everyone
Karen Hao · Penguin Press · penguinrandomhouse.com
Investigative account of OpenAI's rise and the wider AI industry, including internal conflicts, labour practices and environmental costs.
Worth knowing: A critical view of OpenAI and the AI industry.
BookSep 24, 2024For everyone
Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor · Princeton University Press · press.princeton.edu
Two Princeton computer scientists explain what AI can and cannot do, and how to tell genuine advances from overhyped products and misleading claims.
Worth knowing: Skeptical of hype; focuses mainly on today's AI products rather than future risks.
BookOct 8, 2019For the curious
Stuart Russell · Penguin Random House · penguinrandomhouse.com
A leading AI researcher explains why machines built to pursue fixed objectives could slip out of human control, and proposes AI that stays uncertain about what we want so that it defers to us.
Worth knowing: Written in 2019, before today's chatbots.
BookJul 3, 2014For the curious
Nick Bostrom · Oxford University Press · global.oup.com
The philosophical book that brought AI risk to wide attention: how AI smarter than humans might arise, why it could be hard to control, and what strategies might help.
Worth knowing: Written in 2014, before the current generation of AI systems.