This post was originally published on Audible.com.
It seems artificial intelligence—or AI, for short—is a mainstay of headlines these days. But with the field growing so rapidly and changing day by day, it’s practically impossible to keep up with all the new developments. Though researchers, scientists, and technology experts have been working with AI for decades, the introduction of popular bots like ChatGPT brought the field into the mainstream public consciousness. And whether you're excited, skeptical, or just curious about AI, there's one thing that seems certain—artificial intelligence is here to stay. In the years to come, AI is going to continue to impact our lives in ways both big and small.
It’s important, then, that we continue to learn more about AI and what its use means in our day-to-day lives. This list of some of the best audiobooks and podcasts on artificial intelligence delve into the history of the field, explore the philosophical questions and implications of using AI across a wide range of disciplines and practical applications, and look toward the future of this emerging technology.
Note: This list features a selection of books about AI currently available to listeners as of early 2023. Because the field is so dynamic, they reflect the knowledge available in this moment in time. As this technology continues to develop, so will our knowledge and understanding of it.
Audiobooks about artificial intelligence
Though you don’t need to have listened to Sapiens or Homo Deus to enjoy Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari’s latest feels like a logical continuation of his previous explorations of human history—now, for the AI age. Harari again excels at distilling thousands of years of history into accessible observations that simultaneously feel both obvious and revelatory, this time performed by Vidish Athavale. From oral storytelling to the printing press, from the dawn of the information age to the looming specter of AI, Harari shows how we’re on the precipice of another great (but potentially devastating) cultural and technological shift in information sharing—alongside some potential solutions to ensure that we continue to harness tech and information to our benefit, rather than our detriment.
Computer scientist Melanie Mitchell offers a clearsighted analysis of AI today in this vivid, thoroughly researched, and accessible audiobook. Mitchell dives into some of the biggest questions surrounding AI, including what it can really do, what its limitations are, how it fails, and how like (or unlike) humans artificial intelligence models truly are. She expertly teases apart the AI hype and media coverage from actual developments in the field, explaining recent achievements and setbacks in easily understandable terms.
The legendary oracle of technological change explains how AI will transform our species beyond recognition within two decades. What will it mean to live free from the limits of our bodies? Who will we become if our minds can be stored and duplicated? What new realms of beauty, connection and wonder might we inhabit? How will we navigate the risks presented by such awesomely powerful technology? Ray Kurzweil is one of the greatest inventors of our time. Dozens of his long-range predictions about the rise of the internet, AI and bioengineering have been borne out. In this visionary and fundamentally optimistic book, Kurzweil explains how the Singularity will occur, explores what it will mean to live free from the limits of biology, and argues that we can and will transform life on Earth profoundly for the better.
What will the world look like in 20 years? How much will AI have changed by then? How deeply will it have become integrated into the lives of ordinary people? And what new technologies lie ahead that we have not yet imagined? These are just a few of the questions that AI 2041 attempts to answer. Tech expert Kai-Fu Lee is the former head of Google China, and Chen Qiufan is a sci-fi novelist. In this creative, thoughtful listen, they join forces to ponder and probe the terrifying, life-changing, visionary, and often contradictory possibilities of a future defined by artificial intelligence.
In the first major AI treatise of the ChatGPT era coauthored by a titan of the industry, DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman and tech writer and innovator Michael Bhaskar timed The Coming Wave perfectly. Billed as a “fascinating, well-written, and important book” by Yuval Noah Harari and “an excellent guide for navigating unprecedented times” by Bill Gates, The Coming Wave is a zeitgeisty and essential primer that will put you in the company of some of humanity's deepest thinkers looking to The Coming Wave to understand “the containment problem” as the defining challenge of our age.
Like his breakout nonfiction novel When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamín Labatut’s latest explores themes of scientific genius and destruction but with a clear focus on artificial intelligence. A fascinating mix of fiction and history, The MANIAC centers on Hungarian polymath and AI pioneer John von Neumann, with a thrilling final section that depicts the historic Go matches between Lee Sedol and AI competitor AlphaGo. Labatut’s spellbinding prose contains many allusions to weaving (the loom was an obsession of von Neumann’s), including this chilling gem to ponder: “Technology, after all, is a human excretion, and should not be considered as something Other. It is part of us, just like the web is part of the spider.”
Often, the approach to utilizing AI can skew in one of two directions: staunch refusal to engage with the technology or unfettered overuse. In Co-Intelligence, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick poses a more moderate approach to artificial intelligence, instead arguing for coexistence with machine-learning models. Mollick, who narrates his thought-provoking book in an accessible manner akin to an engaging college lecture, remains optimistic about the practical uses of AI for expanding and reinforcing work done by human beings. He emphasizes the need for approaching these resources not merely as a tool or crutch, but as a real-time collaborator capable of bolstering our own creativity and efficiency.
In this compelling and important Audible Original, roboticist Dr. Ayanna Howard clearly lays out the problems of bias when it comes to AI design. She examines how the white male-dominated tech world often produces AI that reflects the ingrained prejudices of its creators, leading to state-of-the-art technology preprogramed with racism, sexism, and other bigoted worldviews. Drawing on years of research, as well as her own experiences as a Black woman working in tech, she lays out the many ways such biases harm all of us. This is a deeply necessary, eye-opening listen.
The inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, has put the core questions of existence—identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life itself—under urgent new scrutiny. Meghan O'Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.
