The Dutch Machine the World is Fighting Over, by NOS op 3
Why the world suddenly has started fighting over Dutch EUV machines.
The World’s Most Important Machine, by Veritasium
A great entry point to try and wrap your head around the unbelievably complex machinery behind the EUV machines.
How to do the Most Good, The Ezra Klein Show
Is ‘merely’ a revolution, or is AI qualitatively different than previous revolutions? How does the emergence of AI change the way in which we think about meta-ethics?
But What is a Neural Network? By 3Blue1Brown
Conceptual introduction into the key technical concepts involved in AI and its use.
GPU vs CPU Demonstration, by the Mythbusters and Nvidia
Visual demonstration of the difference between GPU and CPU computation. This is what unleashed the current AI revolution.
Hard Fork Podcast, the New York Times
Probably the best way to stay up-to-date on the latest twists and turns in the AI landscape without having to read!
The AI Paradox, by Virginia Dignum
A governance-first account from within the responsible-AI field that treats AI as power to be governed rather than merely a product to be regulated, cutting through hype in both directions.
Mao’s Great Famine, by Frank Dikötter
The ultimate optimisation catastrophe: a society reengineered toward a projected future at the cost of tens of millions of lives.
The Technological Republic, by Alexander Karp & Nicholas Zamiska
A frontal attack on Western culture as complacent, intellectually frail, and lacking decisive leadership. The book underlines the messianic argument made by technology elites in propagating their own vision of the future.
What We Owe the Future, by William MacAskill
A central statement of longtermism and the idea that safeguarding civilisation’s long-run future should shape decisions made in the present.
Doing Good Better, by William MacASkill
One of the starting points for the effective-altruist movement and the logic that later developed into longtermism and concern with civilisational existential risk.
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares
Takes the argument of AI doomers to its full extent. It is emblematic of both the content and style of the existential-risk faction in Silicon Valley.
The Wizard and the Prophet, by Charles C. Mann
Identifies the two conventional camps structuring the technology optimism-versus-pessimism debate: the Wizard, who favours abundance and acceleration, and the Prophet, who stresses limits and catastrophe.
The Whale and the Reactor, by Langdon Winner
A seminal text in technology and society. It argues that technologies intrinsically carried values long before AI alignment became a central concern.
The Alignment Problem, by Brian Christian
An early major formulation of the alignment problem and the connection between technical and moral questions. Because it was written before the large-language-model revolution, it focuses on more conventional AI systems.
Atlas of AI, by Kate Crawford
Reframes AI as an extractive industry that mines people, labour, and water while increasing carbon emissions. Those costs are not shared equally.
Race After Technology, by Ruha Benjamin
Takes the recognition that AI is racist and perpetuates injustice to its logical endpoint: how should we resist technology and abolish tools of algorithmic repression?
The Technology Trap, by Carl Benedikt Frey
Zooms in on the disruptive effects of technology on labour. Who wins, who loses, and how does labour disruption destabilise a social order?
Empire of AI, by Karen Hao
Lifts the curtain on how the inner workings of OpenAI have led to an AI arms race. It highlights the enormous environmental, human, and data requirements of training AI.
What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? by Stephen Wolfram
A technical account of modern transformers. It avoids most mathematics, but gives an in-depth explanation of the inner operations of chatbots.