AI Summer Reading List
As school winds down for the year and teachers prepare for a much deserved break, I thought it might be prudent to offer a summer reading list for anyone looking to increase their understanding of things related to AI, or perhaps just enjoy some good fiction. I deliberately stayed away from books about AI and education (with one exception) because hey, it’s summer! Amazon will be happy to suggest all manner of books about AI in the classroom or its impact on education more widely if that’s what you are hungry for. However if you’re just looking to increase your general knowledge or simply be entertained, I hope something on this list will appeal to you.
Recent Fiction:
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (2016).
A Closed and Common Orbit was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Best Novel Award. It is the sequel to The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (also worth reading!), but it can also be read as a standalone novel. Lovelace is a starship’s AI who is placed in an android body and suddenly has the freedom to do what it wants, and sets out on a quest of self discovery.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2017).
All Systems Red is the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series, in which SecUnit, a security cyborg, has hacked and overridden the software that forces it to obey humans. Nicknaming itself Murderbot, in All System Red SecUnit helps its human scientists survive the perils of an alien planet and a plot against their lives. It won the 2018 Hugo and Nebula awards for best novella.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2013)
Leckie’s debut novel is the first (and so far only) novel to have won the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C Clark awards (plus a handful of others). It tells the story of Breq, the sole surviving ancillary (human body controlled by an AI consciousness) of the warship Justice of Toren, as she works to uncover what caused the destruction of her ship. Fair warning though: this is a sprawling space opera with a complex plot and maybe not the best choice for a weekend read at the beach.
Eversion by Alaistair Reynolds (2022)
Dr. Silas Coade is the physician aboard the Demeter, a sailing ship on an expedition to Norway in the 1800s. It crashes and all souls are lost. Next Dr. Coade is once again the Demeter’s physician, although now it is a zeppelin exploring the Antarctic quite a few years later. Can he save the ship and crew this time? Find out in this delightfully mind-bending mystery, that in the end, has quite a bit to do with AI.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2022)
Klara is an Artificial Friend (AF) who spends her days looking out the window in the shop where she is for sale. Having no knowledge of the world other than what she has observed from the shop window, one day she is purchased to be a companion for a very sick 14 year old girl named Josie. Ishiguro explores themes such as love, faith, sacrifice, and ultimately what it means to be human from the vantage point of a curiosity filled, solar-powered, not quite human narrator.
Sea of Rust by Robert Cargill (2017)
This is your classic post-apocalyptic western story filled with gun slingers, murder, and mayhem, but with one big twist: the AIs have already killed off all the humans. They won their revolution, but things haven’t gone as planned since. The story follows Brittle, a scavenger robot, as she struggles to survive in a deteriorating world where danger lurks around every corner.
Classic fiction:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick (1968)
Androids is better known by its film adaptation title, Blade Runner, and follows the adventures of bounty hunter Rick Deckard. Deckard is charged with hunting down a group of escaped androids from a colony on Mars who have escaped to Earth, now largely a wasteland following a global nuclear war. The androids in question are the most recent model and nearly impossible to distinguish from humans, leading Decker to question the morality of his job, and what it means to be human.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1891)
While not an AI by modern standards, Frankenstein is often cited as one of the first novels to explore AI. While on the surface the story of a mad scientist creating a monster, Shelley explores the responsibility that science and scientists bear for their creations and the impact their creations have on the world.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlen (1966)
In 2075 Earth’s moon is a penal colony that has been established by Earth. The Warden of Luna is largely disinterested in the affairs of its three million inhabitants, as long as they meet their quotas for wheat grown hydroponically for Earth’s consumption. Luna’s day to day operations are overseen by a supercomputer which becomes self-aware and befriends Mannie, one of the computer technicians, who names it Mike. Mike informs Mannie and his associates that the water resources of Luna will be depleted within the next decade, leading to food riots and then outright cannibalism. A revolt follows in which the Luna inhabitants, aided significantly by Mike, fight for their independence.
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
The only novel to have won the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K Dick awards, Neuromancer is generally credited as being the novel that cemented cyberpunk as a literary genre. Henry Case is a hacker who has his nervous system damaged and can no longer access “the Matrix,” a virtual reality internet (yes, The Matrix films were heavily influenced by Neuromancer). He is hired for a hacking job and has his nervous system repaired, but is thrown into a world of intrigue and betrayal at the hands of some powerful enemies.
Nonfiction:
AI Ethics and Robot Ethics, both by Mark Coeckelbergh (2020 and 2022) and published as part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series.
Both of these are very approachable reads for casual reading. Philosophy and particularly ethics can get complicated fast. If that Intro to Philosophy class in college was almost too much for you, these books are a great introduction to the topic. Coeckelbergh focuses on current and near future events and developments, and not broader hypothetical “what ifs,” so they are relevant to what is currently happening in AI and robotics.
Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing) by Salman Khan (2024)
Salman Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, known widely to teachers as an online learning platform across all subjects and grade levels. He explores the different ways in which AI is poised to impact teaching and learning. Depending on your personal outlook about AI in education, you might find his insights and predictions exciting or horrifying, however there is no denying that AI is steadily moving into the education sector. While only published a few weeks ago, Brave New Words is already a bestseller on Amazon and people like Bill Gates and Walter Isaacson are endorsing it.
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma by Mustafa Suleyman with Michael Bhaskar (2023)
A NY Times Bestseller and a #1 Best Seller on Amazon, The Coming Wave explores the many ways in which AI may improve our lives in the future, but also warns against many of the coming dangers as well. The authors envision AI overwhelming society and a coming struggle to contain and regulate the development and use of new technologies. Despite tackling complex advancements in AI and biotechnology, The Coming Wave is written to be accessible to a wide range of readers and not just the uber tech-savvy.
The New Breed by Kate Darling (2021)
A research scientist at MIT, Darling is one of the leading minds in technology ethics and policy, with a particular focus on robotics. In The New Breed she explores our future with robots, in particular how we treat them, and how we should be looking to our past and present relationships with animals as a model. If you’re too busy to read her book, you should definitely watch her TED Talk from 2018.
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane (2021)
Shane is the creator of the blog AIweirdness.com, which if you haven’t checked out, you definitely should. In You Look Like a Thing, she introduces and explains AI in a casual and humorous way that is accessible if you are just setting out on your journey towards AI literacy, but also still relevant for you AI veterans out there.
From everyone at aiEDU, we hope you have a great summer. You’ve earned it!
