The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has been a defining feature of the 21st century, reshaping industries, redefining creativity, and sparking profound ethical debates. To help us navigate this new world, we have curated a selection of books for your every need.

AI's journey began with foundational theories in computer science but accelerated dramatically in recent years due to advances in machine learning, access to vast datasets, and exponential growth in computational power. These developments have enabled AI systems to perform tasks previously thought exclusive to human intelligence—speech recognition, image generation, and even composing music and writing books. But don’t let us get started on that today. Let’s get sharing some of the brilliant book love.

Speculative Fiction Featuring AI

The rise of AI has also sparked a wave of speculative and philosophical fiction, as authors wrestle with the implications of sentient machines and superintelligence. Works like Exhalation by Ted Chiang and Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro explore themes of consciousness, morality, and what it means to be human in an age of machines. 

In Exhalation, you’ll find nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories from the mind of the incomparable author of Stories of Your Life and Others. In Klara and the Sun you’ll find a thrilling feat of world-building, a novel of exquisite tenderness and impeccable restraint. It’s a magnificent achievement, and an international literary event.

From the acclaimed authors of the runaway New York Times bestseller 2034 comes 2054, another explosive work of speculative fiction set twenty years further in the future, at a moment when a radical leap forward in artificial intelligence combines with America's violent partisan divide to create an existential threat to the country - and the world.

Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky, a LoveReading Star Book is a hugely entertaining, smart yet smirky blast of speculative fiction. An absolute whammy of a read, and a must for anyone who enjoys a smart, fast-paced, hugely entertaining blast of speculative fiction. 

These books not only entertain but also provoke reflection on the societal impacts of AI, making them essential reading for anyone curious about humanity's future alongside intelligent systems.

Thrillers Featuring AI

In Palisade by Lou Gilmond, you’ll find an edgy thriller teeming with secrets, lies, AI menace, and the buzz of a race against time. Set in a sinister — but increasingly recognisable — world in which all our moves can be tracked and scrutinised, the plots thicken fast when backbencher Harry Colbey, a known anti-big-tech campaigner — receives a set of data that shocks even him.

In The Chaos Agent by Mark Greaney, artificial intelligence leads to shockingly real devastation. Someone is killing the world's leading experts on robotics and artificial intelligence. Is it a tech company trying to eliminate the competition or something even more sinister? After all, AI may be the deadliest battlefield gamechanger since the creation of gunpowder.

Non-Fiction About AI

For readers seeking to understand the technical and societal aspects of AI, books like Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark and Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom offer deep dives into the opportunities and challenges AI presents.

How AI Ate the World by Chris Stokel-Walker, is an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to grab an insight into how AI works and why it's likely to shape our lives., covering all four bases of the history, technology, business and politics of AI in page-turning detail.

In the follow up the international bestseller The Age of AI, three pioneering thinkers offer a powerful guide to our future amid AI's rapid acceleration. The last book of elder statesman Henry Kissinger, written with technologists Craig Mundie and Eric Schmidt, Genesis charts a course between blind faith and unjustified fear as it outlines an effective strategy for navigating the age of AI.

Parmy Olson won the 2024 Business Book of the Year Award for Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World. Supremacy is the behind-the-scenes story of the personal and commercial battle to establish dominance in artificial intelligence.

Discover the never-before-told story of the ruthless shadow race between Microsoft and Google, as both compete to develop a mass-market AI while juggling existential questions of ethics, human progress and the future of the world as we know it.

Through the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from Silicon Valley, Code Dependent by Madhumita Murgia explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia, AI Editor at the FT, exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency – and shatter our illusion of free will.

AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small. In this compelling work, Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.

Biographies about People in the World of AI

The Thinking Machine by Stephen Witt is the story of how Nvidia evolved from selling cheap, aftermarket circuit boards to hundred-million-dollar room-sized supercomputers. Essential to Nvidia's meteoric success is its visionary CEO Jensen Huang, who more than a decade ago, on the basis of a few promising scientific results, bet his entire company on AI. Through unprecedented access to Huang, his friends, his investors, and his employees, Witt documents for the first time the company's epic rise and its iconoclastic CEO, who emerges as a compelling, single-minded, and ferocious leader, and now one of Silicon Valley's most influential figures.

The Money Trap is Alok Sama's thrilling, stranger-than-fiction story, a riveting page-turner about the world of technology and dealmaking.

And finally, a funny book about AI.

AI is changing the world at frightening speed. A bestselling author decides to find out more…Bestselling children's author Andy Stanton has made a career out of writing differently - from the unconventional 'hero' of his bestselling Mr Gum series to his penchant for absurdist plots, his children's books are anything but formulaic.

When a friend introduces him to ChatGPT, Andy is as sceptical as he is curious. Can this jumble of algorithms really mimic the spontaneity of human thought? Could it one day replace human authors like him for good? And are we soon to be ruled over by despotic robot overlords?

Join Andy and his beleaguered AI lackey on a rollicking metafictional journey through the art of storytelling. Presenting his prompts and the AI-generated narrative alongside extensive commentary, Stanton provides a startling paean to the art of a good story and boundless human creativity. Hopeful and hilarious, Benny the Blue Whale provides a joyfully anarchic meditation on AI, literature and why we write. It’s a cracker.

Whether delving into fiction or non-fiction, the intersection of AI and literature offers both a mirror to our current moment and a lens into the future, making this collection an exciting avenue for exploration.

Have you got any reads that you think should be featured here? Add to the comments below, we’re always looking for the next book for our towering reading pile!