100 books like Deep Medicine

I met Dr. Wachter, at the University of California in San Francisco and we were discussing the applicability of technology in a patient’s hospital room to improve care. 

I was introduced to his book and was mesmorized. It was one of my early conversations from a clinician stressing that we need technology, computers to be invisible not irresistible in healthcare.

He writes compelling stories about medical errors which only by the stroke of luck didn’t cause a fatality.  It reminded me of my sister-in-law who was misdiagnosed as being Type 2 diabetes when she was Type 1. 

This misdiagnosis could have proved fatal. The proper use of AI, especially the current wave of generative AI could have made a huge difference.

The opening paragraph of this book is pure poetry in motion, putting me in a trance and craving to read the entire book. 

You wouldn’t know this is a book about neuroscience when reading the opening lines in Chapter 1. Connectome is a thought-provoking exploration of the brain's neural connections and their potential to transform our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. 

Given that artificial intelligence is inspired by neuroscience it’s a great book to understand how the brain works.

Parag is a clinician who covers the current and future state for using AI in several healthcare specialties like cardiology, pharmacy, orthopedics, radiology, and many more. 

This is a book for generalists who want to understand how AI applies to a variety of medical disciplines. I enjoyed this book because it deepened my knowledge as an AI technologist on how to apply AI in areas of healthcare from the lens of a physician.

I must confess the book title drew me to the book as I sought to understand and learn more about the ethics of the misuse of AI. 

Having worked on committees in the AU and advised various entities in the United States, the subject of ethics is front and center. The expanding use of large language models and rise of generative AI makes the potential for harm stronger than ever.  

AI is poised to change our lives and society in ways we have not imagined much like the iPhone when it first arrived. Understanding its potential is useful but understanding its potential for harm is mandatory. 

I found this book to be enlightening on the ethical components of AI and technology.

Books on AI often go to extremes, either promoting it as the solution to all the world’s problems, or depicting it as an evil that will destroy humanity.

This book is much more practical, and based on experience using AI in actual business applications. It is the result of considerable research, involving investigation of applications not only in silicon-valley, but from various business sectors, such as Airbus, Ping, Progressive Insurance, and Capital One Bank.

Don’t let the title fool you; this book is not simply a promotion of AI, but addresses the practical issues that have to be considered if success is to be achieved. For example, they argue that “the most important aspect in AI success is not machinery, but human leadership, behavior, and change.”

Many writers have discussed the dangers that artificial intelligence and machine learning represent to our livelihoods, and how clever computers and autonomous robots will supplant us all in the workplace. What I like about this book is that it provides an alternative, and very optimistic, view of how these new technologies are being deployed. The authors present a future based on a partnership, in which artificial intelligence-based tools work in tandem with human workers, enhancing what individuals can do in the workplace rather than replacing them.

Edwards revealed how the very architecture of early computers owed a debt to the political structures of the Cold War. The innovation of a command/control/information infrastructure set the template for military regimentation, and subsequently for the surveillance society we currently inhabit. The story of how cybernetics—a field that never quite made the grade as pure science—nevertheless conquered the culture, is fascinating.

Kai-Fu Lee, once himself an AI pioneer, wrote AI Superpowers to help non-technical readers understand how and why AI is changing our world, with an emphasis on how it’s reshaping work. Lee breaks down which types of jobs are most vs. least likely to be replaced by AI, and offers wisdom on which skills it makes sense for all of us to lean into given those shifts. He also offers clear-eyed predictions about the potential for AI innovations to reshape global politics. 

I enjoyed this book from page one. Lee’s prose is crisp and his points sharp. I appreciated his occasional meanderings into humanistic realms. This also feels like a personal book, given how much Lee himself has done to accelerate the AI revolution.

Don’t be fooled by the silly title; this book shows how I want to spend eternity. A guy has his consciousness uploaded to computers and then explores the universe. I want to see what is out there, but exploring such a vast space isn’t possible given the short time span of human life, so we need a technology like this.

This book is the first in a series where he meets aliens and serves as a god-like mentor for one relatable developing culture. He also interacts with different versions of himself as he copies his consciousness to better explore the universe.

Telving’s book is ahead of its time in exploring the deep questions of what our humanity is, with perspectives on our future life with AI and intelligent robots. I was particularly intrigued by the ways that the author explores how we evaluate our own consciousness, how we tend to anthropomorphize animals and objects, and the tricky ethical questions around how to legislate a life with robots. Telving deals with one subject that had been far off my radar in the form of the difference between the hard and easy problem of consciousness. It’s a very philosophical question, but in today’s world, where our values, beliefs, and interactions are in mutation, this understanding of consciousness is ever more pertinent.