Top 5 Books on Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Why Read Books on Artificial Intelligence?
AI is showing up in our daily lives faster than any other technology. It’s changing how we work, learn, create, and even make decisions. With all the talk of job fears, new tools, and endless opinions, books offer something rare: clear thinking.
A good AI book helps you understand what’s actually happening beneath the hype. It gives you context, history, and the bigger picture that short videos or articles can’t. Reading AI books is not about becoming an expert overnight, but about developing the clarity to make better choices in a world shaped by intelligent machines.
Best AI Books to Understand the Future of Technology
In the past two years, I’ve read several important books on AI, each offering a different lens on where this technology is taking us. Some focus on risks, some on opportunities, and some on the long human journey that led us here.
The books below are my top 5 picks. They are deeply insightful, and help anyone understand the future we are stepping into. If you want to make sense of AI, this list is a great starting point.
Empire of AI by Karen Hao
Inside the reckless race for total domination
Publication Date: 20 May 2025
Print Length: 496 pages
Publisher: Allen Lane
Karen Hao went into OpenAI expecting to find the “good guys.” Instead, Empire of AI follows her journey through a world where idealism collides with power, resources, and corporate ambition. With rare access to Sam Altman’s inner circle, the book shows how the quest to build world-shaping AI relies on massive compute, vast data pipelines, and human labour often hidden from sight. It’s a revealing story about the people and pressures steering the future of technology.
Also read From Warships to AI: How Power Drives Innovation
Super intelligence by Nick Bostrom
Super intelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 14 July 2016
Print Length: 432 pages
Nick Bostrom asks a powerful question: What happens if machines become smarter than us? Humans dominate the planet because our brains give us an edge. If AI one day surpasses that edge, the balance of power shifts, just like how the future of gorillas depends more on humans than on gorillas themselves.
Bostrom explores whether we can shape the “first move” before AI grows beyond our control. He walks us through ideas like controlled AI growth, safe design strategies, and even the possibility of whole brain emulation. This was written pre Open AI era hence an important read to know how thoughts on AI have evolved. Superintelligence is ultimately about one big idea: preparing humanity for a future where intelligent machines may decide our fate.
Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari
Nexus – A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Publisher: Vintage
Publication Date: 10 September 2024
Print Length: 544 pages
Harari the author of best selling Book Sapiens, traces a long arc. From storytelling around campfires to the rise of writing, printing, and fast-moving digital networks, to show how our ability to share information has shaped human history.
He argues that today’s AI is not just another tool, it’s the next stage of information networks, capable of acting, deciding, and reshaping reality in ways we’ve never seen.
The book invites us to ask: How do we steer a future where networks and machines hold as much power as human societies? Harari warns that our old stories, institutions and safeguards may not be enough. The key question: Can we build information systems, including AI, that serve us rather than undermine us?
Also Read From Language to AI: The Story of Information Revolutions
The Singularity is Nearer by Ray Kurzweil
When We Merge with AI
Publisher: Bodley Head
Publication Date: 27 June 2024
Print Length: 432 pages
Kurzweil builds on his earlier book The Singularity Is Near (published in 2005) to explore where AI is headed next. In this sequel, he argues that in the coming years, AI will not only reach human-level intelligence but merge with us, letting machines and human brains link up, amplify our minds, and redefine what it means to be human.
The book outlines a future where biology meets technology, where our bodies, thoughts and lives are transformed by AI. It’s an optimistic but provocative invitation: if you accept that machines are part of the next chapter of our evolution, how will you live it?
Brave New Words by Salman Khan
How AI Will Revolutionize Education and Why That’s a Good Thing by Salman Khan
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 15 May 2025
Print Length: 272 pages
Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, was one of the first educators to test GPT-models with OpenAI, gaining early access to GPT-4 and helping shape how AI might work in classrooms. In this book he argues that AI isn’t a threat to teachers but a powerful new tool: personalized tutors, adaptive learning and smarter feedback systems that help every student. Instead of fearing the AI wave, Khan wants parents, teachers and students to learn how to ride it, so that technology lifts up human teaching, rather than replaces it.
Brave New Words is a hopeful roadmap showing how AI in education could help reduce learning gaps, free up teacher time, and give every child more support, while also asking hard questions about ethics and access.
