Hi Emily - Good question! You could do that and an increasing amount of writing is AI-created (50% of content on the web!). But in my view with books the key thing is the credibility and authenticity of the author, so the AI part should be supporting, researching, refining… Major publishers so far want human written books.
There’s no law of physics that prohibits Human or supra human AI. So it is technologically plausible that it might be developed in the future.
AI and anything better than humans like uploaded humans, cyborgs and Genetically Enhanced humans have concrete advantages. An AI (all 3actually) can theoretically think and react faster than a human and can process lots of data. AI can be programmed without the bad evolutionary baggage of an evolved organic brain, while keeping everything that is good. AI will be what the internet is today and what electricity was before and what mechanization was before that, something with concrete advantages, and it will be widely adopted because of those advantages.
SciFi like star trek has only minimal use of AI because it is space opera or softer sci fi. “Soft” as in it values story over accuracy. Other scifi which are “harder” or more scientifically accurate speculate that just like mechanization, electricity and the internet, AI will become widely used and it will offer large advantages. And this includes AI’s gaining equal status to humans as well as AI’s taking over government with the consent of the governed. Because once perfected they really do the job better than humans.
I think we need to forget dreams of machine sentience and consciousness, and get back to intelligence. These are alien minds, unlike ours, embodied in the wasteland of the Real.
Wow Praxis22 sounds like you have a big appetite for ideas 💡 I know about Melanie Mitchell’s highly rated work but these 3 other pieces are new to me, will check them out. Thanks!
Autistic, gifted, etc. One trick pony :) Been interested since the dawn of the home computer, came into it three years ago, been doing nothing else since. Check out Machine Learning Street Talk on YouTube, high Signal.
that’s such a good rundown, honestly. made me rethink a couple things about ai books + how to pick what really matters—appreciate you taking time to make this, michael.
Hi Luis - thanks for your note - it’s really hard to pick one out. But as you ask, here are 3. Reshuffle (Sangeet Paul Choudary); Empire of AI (Karen Hao), and The Thinking Machine (Stephen Witt)
Thanks for your perspectives Keshi. You mention 2 great pre-2025 titles that didn’t feature on the 2025 list. Max Tegmark’s Life 3.0 is arguably the biggest of all, with loads of great insight even though written before the GenAI era. Kai Fu-Lee is also world class. Would be interesting to hear about your robotics book…
I am reading A.I. for robotics - towards embodied and general intelligence in the physical world . I wanted to know about physical ai and humanoid robotics and this book has some insights . However it’s a bit technical .
You can publish a book written by Ai? How do you do that?
Hi Emily - Good question! You could do that and an increasing amount of writing is AI-created (50% of content on the web!). But in my view with books the key thing is the credibility and authenticity of the author, so the AI part should be supporting, researching, refining… Major publishers so far want human written books.
This article also appears here: https://aibookreview.substack.com/p/the-top-20-ai-books-of-2025
Thank you! Perfect timing, I was just about to order books for my husband! 🎄
Glad to hear that Karo! Happy Christmas 🎄
Brilliant. Thanks for all this valuable curation.
Thank you so much for saying so.
There’s no law of physics that prohibits Human or supra human AI. So it is technologically plausible that it might be developed in the future.
AI and anything better than humans like uploaded humans, cyborgs and Genetically Enhanced humans have concrete advantages. An AI (all 3actually) can theoretically think and react faster than a human and can process lots of data. AI can be programmed without the bad evolutionary baggage of an evolved organic brain, while keeping everything that is good. AI will be what the internet is today and what electricity was before and what mechanization was before that, something with concrete advantages, and it will be widely adopted because of those advantages.
SciFi like star trek has only minimal use of AI because it is space opera or softer sci fi. “Soft” as in it values story over accuracy. Other scifi which are “harder” or more scientifically accurate speculate that just like mechanization, electricity and the internet, AI will become widely used and it will offer large advantages. And this includes AI’s gaining equal status to humans as well as AI’s taking over government with the consent of the governed. Because once perfected they really do the job better than humans.
This is a great list!
Thanks for the feedback Jeff!
Appreciate that Jeff. Are there any that stand out for you?
Definitely the scaling era. It’s on my desk as my next read
Brilliant write up ! Thanks for sharing mate
Hi Chris. Thanks a lot for your comment!
https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/a-brief-history-of-intelligence-why-the-evolution-of-the-brain-holds-the-key-to-the-future-of-ai-max-bennett?variant=41066050846798
That is good, gives you grounding in how stuff works cognitively.
I have Melanie Mitchell's book on my desk at work.
https://whatisintelligence.antikythera.org/foreword/ free book from Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Google Researcher
https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Intelligence-Evolution-Computing-Antikythera/dp/0262049953
I think we need to forget dreams of machine sentience and consciousness, and get back to intelligence. These are alien minds, unlike ours, embodied in the wasteland of the Real.
https://aeon.co/essays/beyond-humans-what-other-kinds-of-minds-might-be-out-there by Murray Shanahan
https://web.mit.edu/sts.035/www/PDFs/think.pdf As We May Think by Vannevar Bush
Wow Praxis22 sounds like you have a big appetite for ideas 💡 I know about Melanie Mitchell’s highly rated work but these 3 other pieces are new to me, will check them out. Thanks!
Autistic, gifted, etc. One trick pony :) Been interested since the dawn of the home computer, came into it three years ago, been doing nothing else since. Check out Machine Learning Street Talk on YouTube, high Signal.
that’s such a good rundown, honestly. made me rethink a couple things about ai books + how to pick what really matters—appreciate you taking time to make this, michael.
Burak. Great to hear this was useful 😀… what book is next on your list?
Which one would you highly recommend?
Hi Luis - thanks for your note - it’s really hard to pick one out. But as you ask, here are 3. Reshuffle (Sangeet Paul Choudary); Empire of AI (Karen Hao), and The Thinking Machine (Stephen Witt)
I have read LIFE 3.0 . AI 2041 is also a great A.I. book . I am reading a book related to robotics now but thanks for the list . Needed it .
Thanks so much for your comment.
Thanks for your perspectives Keshi. You mention 2 great pre-2025 titles that didn’t feature on the 2025 list. Max Tegmark’s Life 3.0 is arguably the biggest of all, with loads of great insight even though written before the GenAI era. Kai Fu-Lee is also world class. Would be interesting to hear about your robotics book…
I am reading A.I. for robotics - towards embodied and general intelligence in the physical world . I wanted to know about physical ai and humanoid robotics and this book has some insights . However it’s a bit technical .
😀