Whether you’re questioning automation or ambition, this month’s books will make you think twice.
- The first book teaches you how to recognize tech hypes.
- The second is an invitation to ditch your life plans.
You’ll find reasons to pick them up, as well as reasons not to.
AI Con – How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want
Emily Bender and Alex Hanna
Bodley Head (May 2025)
“In the vast majority of cases, AI is not going to replace your job. But it will make your job a lot shittier. What actors and writers are fighting for is a future that doesn’t relegate humans to babysitting scriptwriting and acting algorithms, available on call but only paid when the media synthesis machines glitch out. We’re already seeing this in domains as diverse as journalism, legal services, and the taxi industry… While executives suggest that AI is going to be a labor-saving device, in reality it is meant to be a labor-breaking one. It is intended to devalue labor by threatening workers with technology that can supposedly do their job at a fraction of the cost.”
What if everything we’ve been told about AI is just well-funded science-fiction? Dr. Emily Bender, a computational linguist known for (among other achievements) her paper “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots Stochastic Parrots” (yes, that’s a real title), and Dr. Alex Hanna, a sociologist and director of research at Distributed AI Research (DAIR), suggest that what’s marketed as “AI” is often just a clever way for a handful of powerful organizations to profit off our creativity, our data, and, frankly, our jobs.
Bender and Hanna describe large language models like ChatGPT as “synthetic text extruding machines”, basically, glorified autocomplete. They argue that these systems lack understanding, oversight, and ethics. And while ChatGPT may write you a convincing haiku in the style of Nietzsche, its use raises serious issues like plagiarism, job loss, and meaningless-content-generation on an industrial scale.
Bender and Hanna do concede that some applications are useful (they mention examples like AI helping radiologists to spot anomalies or engineers to balance the electrical grid), but the book mostly focuses on AI’s social costs, and how the hype around it distracts from meaningful public debate.
Three reasons to read this book:
- You’ll learn how to spot AI hype from a million miles away (useful both at tech conferences as well as at parties).
- It connects the dots between AI and your daily life (yes, even those weird Instagram recommendations).
- It includes an analysis of the political consequences of misusing AI, as well as AI-related stories told by the media.
Three reasons you might want to skip it:
- The tone can get a bit snarky, which, while enjoyable, can undercut the gravity of the arguments.
- The book doesn’t dive into how AI systems actually work, which may frustrate readers looking for deeper insights.
- At times, it feels as though we’re reading about the Greatest Hits of AI failures. This makes you wonder whether the topic is better suited to real-time commentary rather than to the long-form format.
No time to read? You can watch Bender and Hanna in conversation with Andrew Keen: just as insightful.
Tiny Experiments How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World
Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Penguin Publishing Group (March 2025)
“Butterflies have often been used as a metaphor for freedom. Turning every single hobby into a hustle is akin to walking around with a cyanide-filled jar to kill and pin every butterfly you see. Sometimes it’s better to just enjoy the chaos of your creative flow without trying to capture and catalyze it.”
Are you tired of making five-year plans that unravel in five days? Neuroscientist Anne-Laure Le Cunff, founder of the Ness Labs newsletter, offers Tiny Experiments as a guide to a mellower lifestyle. Think of it as a permission slip to stop treating your life like a career roadmap and start treating it like a curiosity lab.
Le Cunff argues that we shouldn’t see uncertainty as personal failure, but as an opportunity. (Yes, even the “I have no effing idea what I’m doing with my life” kind of opportunity). Her idea is simple: run small, low-stakes experiments concerning your life. Maybe you want to test new routines (Are you really a morning person or just easily influenced by productivity gurus?). Perhaps you’d like to question old beliefs (Is French food really the pinnacle of culinary perfection?). Or what if you want to figure out whether your “busy” schedule is all about priorities or just cleverly disguised procrastination? These are all examples of what Le Cunff calls tiny experiments that can help your actions to align with your goals…and not just with whatever society thinks you should be doing.
Three reasons to read this book:
- This book offers a flexible framework for people who are allergic to life plans but still want to acquire a keener sense of direction.
- It’s practical. No profound reinvention, just manageable experiments.
- Le Cunff’s background in neuroscience gives the book both credibility and a generous dose of clarity.
Three reasons to skip it:
- Sometimes it feels as though Le Cunff has stopped writing up an example mid-thought. A number of anecdotes and case studies are underdeveloped.
- At times the book edges into motivational territory rather than offering concrete guidance.
- If you’ve read Atomic Habits or Four Thousand Weeks, this book may feel like a mash-up of familiar concepts.
Also worth watching: Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Talk at Google, which definitely has more depth than a TED talk.