Books like The Singularity Is Near

01

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

Nick Bostrom · Science

Superintelligence is Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom's systematic analysis of what might happen if artificial intelligence systems become more capable than humans — and why that transition might represent one of the most significant risks in human history.

Shares artificial intelligence and future with The Singularity Is Near.

02

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Max Tegmark · Science

Life 3.0 is Max Tegmark's accessible survey of the questions raised by the prospect of human-level and superhuman artificial intelligence: What are the plausible paths to AGI?

Shares artificial intelligence and future with The Singularity Is Near.

03

Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control

Stuart Russell · Science

Human Compatible is Stuart Russell's argument, from inside mainstream AI research, that the standard model of AI — build a system that optimizes for a fixed objective — is the wrong approach, and that the transition to much more capable AI systems requires a fundamental change in how AI is designed.

Shares artificial intelligence and future with The Singularity Is Near.

04

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Carl Sagan · Science

Pale Blue Dot takes its title from a photograph taken by Voyager 1 in 1990, as it left the solar system, at Sagan's request.

Both dig into future.

05

The Master Algorithm

Pedro Domingos · Science

The Master Algorithm is Pedro Domingos's survey of machine learning — the field of computer science that creates algorithms capable of learning from data — organized around a central speculative thesis: that there exists, or may be found, a single master algorithm from which all learning can be derived.

Both dig into artificial intelligence.

06

Atlas of AI

Kate Crawford · Science

Atlas of AI is Kate Crawford's account of what artificial intelligence actually is — not a disembodied intelligence but a physical system built from extracted minerals, underpaid labor, vast energy consumption, and accumulated data taken largely without meaningful consent.

Both dig into artificial intelligence.

07

Deep Learning

Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courville · Science

Deep Learning by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courville is the standard graduate-level textbook on the mathematical and computational foundations of deep neural networks.

Both dig into artificial intelligence.

08

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Douglas Hofstadter · Science

Douglas Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize-winning debut, published in 1979, asks how meaning can arise from formal rules — how a biological machine can think, feel, and experience self-awareness.

Both dig into artificial intelligence.

09

How to Create a Mind

Ray Kurzweil · Science

Ray Kurzweil's central claim in How to Create a Mind is that the neocortex — the part of the brain responsible for higher thought — operates on a single repeating algorithm called the pattern recognition theory of mind.

Both dig into artificial intelligence.

10

The Alignment Problem

Brian Christian · Science

Brian Christian's The Alignment Problem examines a fundamental challenge in machine learning: how do you ensure that an artificial system actually pursues the goals you intend, rather than a close but dangerous approximation?

Both dig into artificial intelligence.

11

The Book of Why

Judea Pearl · Science

The Book of Why is Judea Pearl's argument that the dominant tradition in statistics — which insists on correlations and avoids causal claims — is a fundamental intellectual mistake, and that building a proper science of causality is the most important unsolved problem in both science and artificial intelligence.

Both dig into artificial intelligence.

12

The Coming Wave

Mustafa Suleyman · Science

The Coming Wave is written by Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and CEO of Microsoft AI, who is as inside the AI development world as anyone writing seriously about its risks.

Both dig into artificial intelligence.