100 books like AI 2041

By Kai-Fu Lee, Chen Qiufan,

Here are 100 books that AI 2041 fans have personally recommended if you like AI 2041. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Yehonathan Sharvit Author Of Data-Oriented Programming

From my list on become a great developer.

Why am I passionate about this?

I boast a two-decade-long career in the software industry. Over the years, I have diligently honed my programming skills across a multitude of languages, including JavaScript, C++, Java, Ruby, and Clojure. Throughout my career, I have taken on various management roles, from Team Leader to VP of Engineering. No matter the role, the thing I have enjoyed the most is to make complex topics easy to understand.

Yehonathan's book list on become a great developer

Yehonathan Sharvit Why did Yehonathan love this book?

This book profoundly influenced my thinking process, combining the worlds of mathematics, art, and music. I was captivated by how the book explores the deep connections between Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, Escher’s art, and Bach’s art of counterpoint.

The book’s puzzles and thought experiments pushed me to think more abstractly and critically. Despite being dense, I found it incredibly rewarding and eye-opening. I recommend this book to anyone interested in logic, creativity, and the nature of human thought. It’s a masterpiece!

By Douglas R. Hofstadter,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked Gödel, Escher, Bach as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of maps" or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers attain human intelligence. Goedel, Escher, Bach is a wonderful exploration of fascinating ideas at the heart of cognitive science: meaning, reduction, recursion, and much more.


Book cover of Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Manil Suri Author Of The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Math

From my list on to make you fall in love with mathematics.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a mathematics professor who ended up writing the internationally bestselling novel The Death of Vishnu (along with two follow-ups) and became better known as an author. For the past decade and a half, I’ve been using my storytelling skills to make mathematics more accessible (and enjoyable!) to a broad audience. Being a novelist has helped me look at mathematics in a new light, and realize the subject is not so much about the calculations feared by so many, but rather, about ideas. We can all enjoy such ideas, and thereby learn to understand, appreciate, and even love math. 

Manil's book list on to make you fall in love with mathematics

Manil Suri Why did Manil love this book?

A primary reason to love math is because of its usefulness. This book shows two sides of math’s applicability, since it is so ubiquitously used in various algorithms.

On the one hand, such usage can be good, because statistical inferences can make our life easier and enrich it. On the other, when these are not properly designed or monitored, it can lead to catastrophic consequences. Mathematics is a powerful force, as powerful as wind or fire, and needs to be harnessed just as carefully.

Cathy O’Neil’s message in this book spoke deeply to me, reminding me that I need to be always vigilant about the subject I love not being deployed carelessly.  

By Cathy O’Neil,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Weapons of Math Destruction as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'A manual for the 21st-century citizen... accessible, refreshingly critical, relevant and urgent' - Financial Times

'Fascinating and deeply disturbing' - Yuval Noah Harari, Guardian Books of the Year

In this New York Times bestseller, Cathy O'Neil, one of the first champions of algorithmic accountability, sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life -- and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.

We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives - where we go to school, whether we get a loan, how much we pay for insurance - are being made…


Book cover of The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

Ashley Recanati Author Of AI Battle Royale: How to Protect Your Job from Disruption in the 4th Industrial Revolution

From my list on AI and the future of work.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have over 2 decades of finance control and general management experience spanning the manufacturing and retail sectors, in big names like LVMH. A finance controller’s job is all about efficiency and involves learning every new tool available that can help to achieve that goal. Through this work, I realized how many people are not ready for the tidal wave of disruption about to hit employees with AI and other technological changes. I was utterly shocked at not being able to find a single sensible guidebook with solutions actionable by workers.

Ashley's book list on AI and the future of work

Ashley Recanati Why did Ashley love this book?

The first comprehensive book on new tech and its impacts, following big steps made in AI progress in the early 2010s. The authors bring home the point that we are undergoing a watershed moment as tools no longer substitute merely for physical labor encroach on mental tasks – hence the book’s title.

After centuries of fleeing blue-collar jobs to take refuge in cerebral work, we are being left with nowhere to run. Not only that, but past technology would automate a given task, whereas the looming Artificial Intelligence is bound to intervene in many, many tasks currently handled by humans.

By Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Second Machine Age as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In recent years, computers have learned to diagnose diseases, drive cars, write clean prose and win game shows. Advances like these have created unprecedented economic bounty but in their wake median income has stagnated and employment levels have fallen. Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee reveal the technological forces driving this reinvention of the economy and chart a path towards future prosperity. Businesses and individuals, they argue, must learn to race with machines. Drawing on years of research, Brynjolfsson and McAfee identify the best strategies and policies for doing so. A fundamentally optimistic book, The Second Machine Age will radically alter…


Book cover of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Nicholas Maes Author Of Laughing Wolf

From my list on to understand (and survive) modernity.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a classicist (Greek and Latin) and a serious student of history. Modernity has obsessed me for the last 10 years, how it unfolds, what its implications are, whether it generates more gains than losses, whether it’s changing us profoundly and whether we can dodge it or not. Because of this interest (which I lecture on often) I am fascinated to see modernity’s gleanings in earlier times and always curious to see what other critics make of it. Because its effects will only grow down the road, the task of understanding its mechanisms and outcomes is one of extreme urgency, as these books illustrate in different ways.

Nicholas' book list on to understand (and survive) modernity

Nicholas Maes Why did Nicholas love this book?

This book is one of the nuttiest I’ve read in its imaginings of a modern world on steroids. The part that teases most is that its predictions might come true.

I know our smartphones and laptops have changed our world, but cures that would extend longevity ad infinitum? Neural interfaces that would connect us directly to the internet? Nanobots that would reduce the cost of goods to zero?

Because the topic of modernity has come to engross me so, the big question always is, “How far will it carry us?” The answer to which (according to Kurzweil) is much farther than you can possibly imagine and much sooner than you think. One should have one’s mind blown every couple of years, and Kurzweil does exactly that.

By Ray Kurzweil,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Singularity Is Near as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Startling in scope and bravado." -Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world." -Los Angeles Times

"Elaborate, smart and persuasive." -The Boston Globe

"A pleasure to read." -The Wall Street Journal

One of CBS News's Best Fall Books of 2005 * Among St Louis Post-Dispatch's Best Nonfiction Books of 2005 * One of Amazon.com's Best Science Books of 2005

A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author of How to Create a Mind and The Singularity is Nearer who Bill Gates calls "the best person I know at…


Book cover of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

Ashley Recanati Author Of AI Battle Royale: How to Protect Your Job from Disruption in the 4th Industrial Revolution

From my list on AI and the future of work.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have over 2 decades of finance control and general management experience spanning the manufacturing and retail sectors, in big names like LVMH. A finance controller’s job is all about efficiency and involves learning every new tool available that can help to achieve that goal. Through this work, I realized how many people are not ready for the tidal wave of disruption about to hit employees with AI and other technological changes. I was utterly shocked at not being able to find a single sensible guidebook with solutions actionable by workers.

Ashley's book list on AI and the future of work

Ashley Recanati Why did Ashley love this book?

A wakeup call for many. Martin made the case of how tech is accelerating and impacting work, bringing the threat of massive unemployment to the public scene, and insisting that it’s not only blue-collar jobs that are concerned.

Critics noted a narrow stance that fails to account for factors like shifting demographics and trends like gigging. And massive unemployment has not yet materialized, though to his defense less than a decade has passed since. The only remedy from Martin – Universal Basic Income – is not a miracle solution applicable worldwide.

The book’s focus is more on convincing audiences of the upcoming problems than working on solutions. Setting aside these critics, Rise of the Robots remains an undeniable classic for anyone curious about tech’s impact on work.

By Martin Ford,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Rise of the Robots as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the 2015 FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award A New York Times Bestseller Top Business Book of 2015 at Forbes One of NBCNews.com 12 Notable Science and Technology Books of 2015What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making good jobs" obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart…


Book cover of The Age of AI: And Our Human Future

Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan Author Of The Role of the Arab-Islamic World in the Rise of the West: Implications for Contemporary Trans-Cultural Relations

From my list on the frontier risks facing humanity in the 21st Century.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a philosopher, neuroscientist, geostrategist, and futurologist. My work at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, St. Antony’s College, and the World Economic Forum (as a member of the Global Future Council on the Future of Complex Risks) focuses on transdisciplinarity, with an emphasis on the interplay between philosophy, neuroscience, strategic culture, applied history, technology, and global security. I am particularly interested in the exponential growth of disruptive technologies, and how they have the potential to both foster and hinder the progress of human civilization. My mission is rooted in finding transdisciplinary solutions to identify, predict and manage frontier risks, both here on earth and in Outer Space.

Nayef's book list on the frontier risks facing humanity in the 21st Century

Nayef R.F. Al-Rodhan Why did Nayef love this book?

This book is a timely primer on the promise and peril of artificial intelligence (AI) authored by an unlikely coalition of insightful thinkers: a 100-year-old diplomat, a former Google chief executive, and an M.I.T. professor.

They present an interesting overview of the range of AI technologies and their likely impact on many spheres of life, from medicine and the military to health care and urban development.

The result is an accessible, thought-provoking book that asks important questions about the role of machine learning in changing human society, for good and ill.

By Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Age of AI as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Three of the world’s most accomplished and deep thinkers come together to explore Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the way it is transforming human society—and what this technology means for us all.

An AI learned to win chess by making moves human grand masters had never conceived. Another AI discovered a new antibiotic by analyzing molecular properties human scientists did not understand. Now, AI-powered jets are defeating experienced human pilots in simulated dogfights. AI is coming online in searching, streaming, medicine, education, and many other fields and, in so doing, transforming how humans are experiencing reality.

In The Age of AI,…


Book cover of A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

Christian Hugo Hoffmann Author Of The Quest for a Universal Theory of Intelligence: The Mind, the Machine, and Singularity Hypotheses

From my list on making sense of the I in AI.

Why am I passionate about this?

I embarked on this arduous journey of making sense of the I in AI while working as an Assistant Professor of Finance, which, however, began to look increasingly uninteresting and oppressive. With this innovative endeavor, I return home to philosophy. Apart from being passionate about AI in academia, I’m a tech entrepreneur by heart with three software start-ups in Germany, Switzerland, and Malawi under my belt. Moreover, I served as Deputy Director of and Head of AI at the Swiss Fintech Innovation Lab in Zurich, as Director of Startup Grind Geneva, and I continue to fulfill my role as start-up coach/judge and mentor in various startup programs.

Christian's book list on making sense of the I in AI

Christian Hugo Hoffmann Why did Christian love this book?

This book is as close as you can get to making sense of intelligence in a way that enriches our understanding of AI. And it opens the door with a bang: Starting from human intelligence, it is highlighted that how a brain made of simple cells creates intelligence remains a mystery.

I appreciate the strength of the book which does not surrender in front of the immense obstacle of figuring out the most complex system in the known universe, our brain, but it moves on and eloquently expresses the ultimate goal of thousands of scientists: to understand the mechanics of the human mind.

This proposed theory of intelligence allowed me to lay the foundation of comparing human and machine intelligence in a meaningful manner.

By Jeff Hawkins,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A Thousand Brains as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For all we hear of neuroscience's great advances, the field has generated more questions than answers. We know that the brain combines sensory input from all over your body into a single perception, but not how. We think brains "compute" in some sense, but we can't say what those computations are. We believe that the brain is organized as a hierarchy, with different pieces all working collaboratively to make a single model of the world. But we can explain neither how those pieces are differentiated, nor how they collaborate.

Neuroscientist and computer engineer Jeff Hawkins argues that it's so hard…


Book cover of Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World

Art Kleiner Author Of The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology

From my list on understanding AI and its effect on people.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a storyteller writing on business and technology. I specialize in clear views of complex systems. When Juliette showed me her research on tech companies and AI responsibility, I saw the power of a book – the book that ultimately became The AI Dilemma. The core dilemma is that in the right hands the technology is needed, and in the wrong hands it’s dangerous. When Juliette asked me to coauthor it, I jumped at the chance. As we worked, I realized that the topic brought into focus all the research and thinking I’d ever done about human, organizational, and machine behavior. 

Art's book list on understanding AI and its effect on people

Art Kleiner Why did Art love this book?

If ever a subject deserved the sweeping hand of a highly skilled journalist/historian, it’s generative AI and machine learning. The field is shaped by its founders’ idiosyncratic and fascinating personalities.

NYTimes reporter Cade Metz observed many events first-hand. We read about Go Grandmaster Lee Sedol recovering from losing to Google’s AI by mastering the machine’s logic. We see Geoffrey Hinton flying supine because of his back problems, and the origins of Joy Buolamwini’s famous Gender Shades project.

We get the backstory to the most serious issues: like how well can AI developers be trusted to manage risk? As a journalist-historian myself, I deeply appreciate being immersed in contemporary history. 

By Cade Metz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Genius Makers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'This colourful page-turner puts artificial intelligence into a human perspective . . . Metz explains this transformative technology and makes the quest thrilling.' Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs
____________________________________________________

This is the inside story of a small group of mavericks, eccentrics and geniuses who turned Artificial Intelligence from a fringe enthusiasm into a transformative technology. It's the story of how that technology became big business, creating vast fortunes and sparking intense rivalries. And it's the story of breakneck advances that will shape our lives for many decades to come - both for good and for ill.
________________________________________________

'One day…


Book cover of Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence

Art Kleiner Author Of The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology

From my list on understanding AI and its effect on people.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a storyteller writing on business and technology. I specialize in clear views of complex systems. When Juliette showed me her research on tech companies and AI responsibility, I saw the power of a book – the book that ultimately became The AI Dilemma. The core dilemma is that in the right hands the technology is needed, and in the wrong hands it’s dangerous. When Juliette asked me to coauthor it, I jumped at the chance. As we worked, I realized that the topic brought into focus all the research and thinking I’d ever done about human, organizational, and machine behavior. 

Art's book list on understanding AI and its effect on people

Art Kleiner Why did Art love this book?

This is the book I suggest to people who worry that AI will take their jobs or control the world.

These U of Toronto economists make a case for AI as a disruptor of systems and power structures – not on their own, but because of the decision makers who control them. Those companies won’t necessarily be Alphabet, Amazon, or Meta. Their competitive advantage – access to data – will now be available cheaply.

It’s judgment that’s at a premium now. After reading this, I feel pretty trusting of AI. I’m just not so sure about people.   

By Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, Avi Goldfarb

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Power and Prediction as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Disruption resulting from the proliferation of AI is coming. The authors of the bestselling Prediction Machines can help you prepare.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has impacted many industries around the world-banking and finance, pharmaceuticals, automotive, medical technology, manufacturing, and retail. But it has only just begun its odyssey toward cheaper, better, and faster predictions that drive strategic business decisions. When prediction is taken to the max, industries transform, and with such transformation comes disruption.

What is at the root of this? In their bestselling first book, Prediction Machines, eminent economists Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb explained the simple yet…


Book cover of Risk Thinking: ...In an Uncertain World

Art Kleiner Author Of The AI Dilemma: 7 Principles for Responsible Technology

From my list on understanding AI and its effect on people.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a storyteller writing on business and technology. I specialize in clear views of complex systems. When Juliette showed me her research on tech companies and AI responsibility, I saw the power of a book – the book that ultimately became The AI Dilemma. The core dilemma is that in the right hands the technology is needed, and in the wrong hands it’s dangerous. When Juliette asked me to coauthor it, I jumped at the chance. As we worked, I realized that the topic brought into focus all the research and thinking I’d ever done about human, organizational, and machine behavior. 

Art's book list on understanding AI and its effect on people

Art Kleiner Why did Art love this book?

Another classic, which influenced my book. Ron is the founder of RiskThinking AI, which focuses on the financial effects of climate change.

His fascinating stories include one of the first fatalities from self-driving cars, when it struck a woman with a bicycle running to cross the road. Any human driver would have seen an uncertain image and slowed down, playing out a group of possible scenarios. But AI hasn’t learned that kind of humility.

Eventually, when it does, the machines and people will learn how to manage risk together, and that will lead to more courage. The best part of this book is his insight into how the use of new technology changes human behavior.  

By Ron S Dembo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Risk Thinking as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Our age of radical uncertainty requires a new way of assessing risk that pays more attention to the extreme outliers that too often become tomorrow’s reality.

Today’s models cannot cope with the frightening new unpredictable risks we face every day that frequently seem to come out of left field – the effects of climate change, a killer pandemic, a cascading wildfire, a financial crisis triggered by faceless algorithms, or a devastating cyber-attack that shuts down the electric power grid.

This accessible book advocates a new, more realistic approach to analyzing risk and strategizing—one that is less reliant on a single…


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