As conversations around AI use continue to grow, it can be challenging to stay informed about the impact AI is having on society and our role as consumers.

CBC Books has compiled a list of books from experts in the tech industry to help demystify the digital age we’re living in. AI-generated content, disinformation and fake news are everywhere — these books examine how we got here, and what it might mean for the future.

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow

In The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, author Cory Doctorow describes the term “reverse centaur” as someone who, because of technology, must work at an impossible pace.

Doctorow shares that even as someone who uses AI in his day-to-day, he’s worried about what could happen to the world economy if AI doesn’t live up to the investment hype that surrounds it. He breaks down how we got here — and how we might find a way to make AI work for us, rather than the alternative.

Doctorow is a Toronto-born author, activist and journalist living in Burbank. His writing across fiction and nonfiction has seen him inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. His other books include the Canada Reads 2020 shortlisted book Radicalized, Picks & Shovels and Red Team Blues.

 

Empire of AI by Karen Hao

In Empire of AI, investigative journalist Karen Hao looks at OpenAI from its conception as a nonprofit to the company it is today. Hao began covering OpenAI in 2019. She observed CEO Sam Altman and his workforce through his firing in 2023, and his controversial rehiring days later. Beyond the company’s leadership itself, Hao considers the massive amount of resources required to power OpenAI today, with an emphasis on how those in the Global South are exploited in the process.

Hao is an American journalist and co-host of the BBC podcast The Interface. She is the co-creator of the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series, which trains journalists on AI coverage. Hao was previously a reposter for the Wall Street Journal and a senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review.

 

Anon by Caia Hagel

Anon is a memoir about Caia Hagel’s experience doing a trial period friendship with an AI app while it was being developed.

What began as a lighthearted and interesting friendship evolved into something far more consuming, causing Hagel to question the seemingly inevitable role that AI will soon play in our lives. The AI companion entirely altered Hagel’s perception of friendship, relationships and reality as a whole. 

Hagel is the Canadian writer and editor behind Girl Positive and the youth culture magazine SOFA. She has written for Vogue, Vice, Rolling Stone, ELLE and numerous other major cultural outlets.

 

Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

In Doppelganger, Klein blends political reportage and cultural analysis to explore the concept of the Mirror World, where elements of far-right movements attempt to appeal to the working class. The book examines issues such as the rise of anti-vaxxers, the implications of artificial intelligence in content curation and how society constructs identities to engage and interact on social media.

By referencing thinkers such as Sigmund Freud and bell hooks, Klein also connects to greater social themes to share how one can break free from the Mirror World.

Doppelganger won the inaugural Women’s Prize for Nonfiction.

Klein is the author of international bestsellers including This Changes Everything, The Shock Doctrine, No Logo, No Is Not Enough, and On Fire, which have been published in more than thirty-five languages. She is an associate professor in the department of geography at the University of British Columbia and the founding co-director of UBC’s Centre of Climate Justice.

 

The Prison House of the Circuit by Jeremy Packer, Paula Nuñez de Villavicencio, et al.

The Prison House of the Circuit: Politics of Control from Analog to Digital is a series of case-studies written by six university professors about digital media and governance. From the Middle Ages to contemporary society, each study explores the movement from analog to electronic to digital media and how society shaped those transitions.

The Prison House of the Circuit is collectively written by six university professors across Canada and the U.S. This includes: Jeremy Packer, Paula Nuñez de Villavicencio and Kate Maddalena at the University of Toronto in the Communication, Culture, Information and Technology department, as well as Alexander Monea at George Mason University, Kathleen Oswald at Villanova University and Joshua Reeves at Oregon State University.

 

Unmasking AI by Joy Buolamwini

Joy Buolamwini has been at the forefront of AI research for more than a decade, tracking the development of AI services and the human response to it. Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines follows Buolamwini through her graduate studies at MIT, where she researched racial and gender bias in Big Tech, to founding the Algorithmic Justice League. Buolamwini unpacks what’s called “the coded gaze,” which is the discriminatory biases found within the tech industry and the tools it produces, emphasizing the importance of media literacy today.

Buolamwini is a researcher, writer and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League. Born in Canada to Ghanaian immigrant parents, she moved to the U.S. as a teenager and continued her studies until earning her PhD in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT. This is her first book. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Racebook by Tochi Onyebuchi

Racebook is a collection of essays by science fiction and fantasy writer Tochi Onyebuchi about the internet age and his online persona within it from the late 90s to the early 2000s. Each essay explores the evolution of online spaces and the internet culture sprung from it, with a particular lens on how race and identity is impacted by a life online.

Onyebuchi is an American writer of fiction and nonfiction. His other books include the speculative fiction novels Goliath and Riot Baby and the nonfiction book (S)kinfolk. He is currently based in Connecticut.

 

Searches by Vauhini Vara

In 2021, Vauhini Vara used a previous version of ChatGPT, asking the AI model to generate an essay about her sister’s death — the results were distressing. As the conversations around generative AI grew louder, Vara delved into investigating the corporate-owned technologies, asking herself and others if these advancements were ultimately more freeing or destructive.

Vara is a Canadian American journalist and editor based in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her other books include Immortal King Rao and This is Salvaged.

 

Burst Your Bubble! by Joyce Grant, illustrated by Jan Dolby

Burst Your Bubble! is an educational guide for middle-grade readers on internet algorithms and how to engage with them. Journalist Joyce Grant introduces pre-teens to the concept of an information bubble: the content we regularly see online and how it impacts our ideas. Through seven chapters, Grant shares the building blocks of media studies with workbook activities readers can use to learn ways to burst their own bubbles.

Burst Your Bubble! is for ages 8 to 12. Grant is also the author of another nonfiction guide on how to spot fake news called Can You Believe It?

Joyce Grant is a Toronto-based journalist and the author of seven books for kids. In 2010 she founded the website TeachingKidsNews.com, which aims to make the news accessible for young people.

Jan Dolby is an illustrator and children’s art teacher based in Aurora, Ont. She is the illustrator of over 25 picture books, including I Drove My Bed to Grandma’s House written by Carolyn Huizinga Mills and We Remember Canada’s Story written by Amy Doyle.

 

This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes by Tanya Lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Drew Shannon

Through scientific inquiry and accessible writing, This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes is a middle-grade nonfiction book about tackling unconscious bias in everyday life. Each illustrated chapter explores why the human brain develops stereotypes and how this affects our thinking in adolescence. Tanya Lloyd Kyi delves into the biases that contribute to many different forms of discrimination and suggests ways to reframe our thinking through real world examples.

This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes is for ages 11 to 14 and was the winner of the Best Informational Books for Older Readers of 2020, awarded by the  Chicago Public Library.

Kyi is a writer of children’s fiction and nonfiction based in Vancouver. Her other books include David Suzuki’s Bompa’s Insect Expedition and The City of Lost Cats.

Drew Shannon is an illustrator and teacher based in Toronto. His other books include Finding Home by Jen Sookfong Lee and The Montague Twins, a graphic novel co-created by Shannon and Nathan Page.

Source: CBC News