Here are 100 books that The Proving Ground fans have personally recommended if you like
The Proving Ground.
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I fell in love with technology when I wrote my first computer program at age 14 when there was no public Internet, no personal computers, no iPhone, no cloud. I have made technical contributions to every era of computing from mainframes, to PCs, Internet, Cloud, and now AI. I was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering. AI currently surpasses my wildest imagination on the art of what’s possible. I'm still passionately working in technology at Google focused on how to live healthier lives. I believe we can make AI the telescope of the future, to helping everyone live long and healthy lives.
This book explores how AI is transforming healthcare and the potential benefits it can bring to patients and doctors.
The author, Eric, is a cardiologist with working knowledge of technology of AI. I love how he describes with clarity, the present and potential to make people healthier with AI First thinking. That is, how AI can make the business of health care human.
I love the premise and basis of Eric’ thinking that we can make healthcare personalized, proactive, anticipatory, helping people live healthier lives and reducing the cost of healthcare.
At the same time he is mindful that AI could be used to dehumanize healthcare and exacerbate existing inequalities.
A visit to a physician these days is cold: physicians spend most of their time typing at computers, making minimal eye contact. Appointments generally last only a few minutes, with scarce time for the doctor to connect to a patient's story, or explain how and why different procedures and treatments might be undertaken. As a result, errors abound: indeed, misdiagnosis is the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States, trailing only heart disease, cancer, and stroke. This is because, despite having access to more resources than ever, doctors are vulnerable not just to the economic demand to see more…
The first female police detective in Acapulco, Emilia Cruz, dives into an ocean of secrets and lies when she is forced to lead the investigation into her own lieutenant's murder.
Caught between the powerful head of the police union and resentful colleagues, Emilia becomes a pawn in a game of…
My passion for generative AI first ignited in 2016 when I spoke about it at a conference, and ever since then, I can’t stop! I've created an online course, a newsletter and even wrote a book to spread knowledge on this groundbreaking technology. As an instructor, I empower others to explore the boundless potential of generative AI applications. Day in day out, I assist clients in crafting their own generative AI solutions, tailoring them to their unique needs.
While it’s not the newest tech, I love that it covers the essential groundwork that sparked the modern AI revolution. I personally think its perfect for engineers and data scientists. It's also a great precursor to my book, giving you the strong foundation you need before diving into the next wave of AI advancements.
Generative modeling is one of the hottest topics in AI. It's now possible to teach a machine to excel at human endeavors such as painting, writing, and composing music. With this practical book, machine-learning engineers and data scientists will discover how to re-create some of the most impressive examples of generative deep learning models, such as variational autoencoders,generative adversarial networks (GANs), encoder-decoder models and world models.
Author David Foster demonstrates the inner workings of each technique, starting with the basics of deep learning before advancing to some of the most cutting-edge algorithms in the field. Through tips and tricks, you'll…
I was raised in a large family, and we were taught to be respectful, honest, and polite to everyone. I've never been able to understand the mind of a 'nasty' person or how a person can hurt another. When these people are brought to justice, how can we know they are telling the truth?
Expanding on this, I started thinking about Artificial Intelligence—could this be the creation that gives us the way to see into a person's mind; to find out what crime they have committed? But then I thought, what if the actual creator was a criminal? How would anyone even know? That was the route of my research which led to i4Ni being written.
I find this book to be inspiring in its mix of the old and new. Old because its main character, Detective Bell, enjoys good old-fashioned detective work, and 'new' because he works in a world alongside 'modern' detectives and futuristic ways of investigating mysteries and crimes. They find ways to work with each other in this book.
I like this because it dispels fears of living in an AI world controlled by humans. I also liked how it shows AI and humans living and existing alongside each other.
I've found this book to be a new experience in itself as I have used the 'synchronised female voice version' to listen to the story and it's brilliant.
In this book readers are invited to explore a unique narrative, a testament to the synergistic potential of human creativity and artificial intelligence. This book stands as an innovative collaboration between a human author and AI, weaving a story that blends the nuanced understanding of human experience with the analytical prowess of machine intelligence."Holmes.AI & Detective Gregory Bell" is not just a story; it’s a journey through the possibilities of a future where humans and AI coexist and cooperate. It challenges the often dystopian narrative surrounding AI, presenting a world where technology and humanity augment each other, leading to innovative…
"In AIsRYourFriends, John J Jessop continues the hilarious adventures of the PI firm run by Dr. Jason and Chelsea Longfellow. The loving but dysfunctional couple this time wrestles with Florida gators who are killing corporate executives with their mistresses. Added to the mix are AI-run devices that are taking…
I have spent over a decade studying and teaching digital media, communication, and technology policy, while also working in journalism and media production. My passion for this topic comes from watching how technology quietly reshapes everyday life, from how people form relationships to how societies govern themselves. I am fascinated by the space where media, culture, and human behavior intersect, especially when change feels invisible but profound. Writing and reading about AI helps me make sense of these transformations, and I care deeply about helping people remain thoughtful, ethical, and human in an increasingly algorithmic world.
I loved this book because it spoke to my emotional relationship with technology, not just my intellectual one.
As I read, I kept reflecting on how values, empathy, and intention shape the tools we create. Gawdat’s writing made me slow down and think about responsibility in a deeply personal way. It reminded me that AI systems learn from us, including our flaws.
This book made me ask harder questions about the kind of humanity we are encoding into machines, and it stayed with me as a moral reflection rather than a technical manual.
ONE OF THE SUNDAY TIMES' BUSINESS BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Technology is putting our humanity at risk to an unprecedented degree. This book is not for engineers who write the code or the policy makers who claim they can regulate it. This is a book for you. Because, believe it or not, you are the only one that can fix it. - Mo Gawdat
Artificial intelligence is smarter than humans. It can process information at lightning speed and remain focused on specific tasks without distraction. AI can see into the future, predicting outcomes and even use sensors to see around…
I’m a mathematics professor who ended up writing the internationally bestselling novel The Death of Vishnu (along with two follow-ups) and became better known as an author. For the past decade and a half, I’ve been using my storytelling skills to make mathematics more accessible (and enjoyable!) to a broad audience. Being a novelist has helped me look at mathematics in a new light, and realize the subject is not so much about the calculations feared by so many, but rather, about ideas. We can all enjoy such ideas, and thereby learn to understand, appreciate, and even love math.
A primary reason to love math is because of its usefulness. This book shows two sides of math’s applicability, since it is so ubiquitously used in various algorithms.
On the one hand, such usage can be good, because statistical inferences can make our life easier and enrich it. On the other, when these are not properly designed or monitored, it can lead to catastrophic consequences. Mathematics is a powerful force, as powerful as wind or fire, and needs to be harnessed just as carefully.
Cathy O’Neil’s message in this book spoke deeply to me, reminding me that I need to be always vigilant about the subject I love not being deployed carelessly.
'A manual for the 21st-century citizen... accessible, refreshingly critical, relevant and urgent' - Financial Times
'Fascinating and deeply disturbing' - Yuval Noah Harari, Guardian Books of the Year
In this New York Times bestseller, Cathy O'Neil, one of the first champions of algorithmic accountability, sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that pervade modern life -- and threaten to rip apart our social fabric.
We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives - where we go to school, whether we get a loan, how much we pay for insurance - are being made…
My PhD work was in developmental robotics, which is about how a robot could wake up and learn about the world the way a human child does. The robot in my thesis work does this by building models, and, more generally, society as a whole advances when science builds ever better causal models about how the world works. The books in this collection are about what could happen when we are 5, 10, and 100 years ahead in the causal model-building process, and they look at what happens when those models are built by robots instead of humans.
Don’t be fooled by the silly title; this book shows how I want to spend eternity. A guy has his consciousness uploaded to computers and then explores the universe. I want to see what is out there, but exploring such a vast space isn’t possible given the short time span of human life, so we need a technology like this.
This book is the first in a series where he meets aliens and serves as a god-like mentor for one relatable developing culture. He also interacts with different versions of himself as he copies his consciousness to better explore the universe.
Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.
Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first…
I embarked on this arduous journey of making sense of the I in AI while working as an Assistant Professor of Finance, which, however, began to look increasingly uninteresting and oppressive. With this innovative endeavor, I return home to philosophy. Apart from being passionate about AI in academia, I’m a tech entrepreneur by heart with three software start-ups in Germany, Switzerland, and Malawi under my belt. Moreover, I served as Deputy Director of and Head of AI at the Swiss Fintech Innovation Lab in Zurich, as Director of Startup Grind Geneva, and I continue to fulfill my role as start-up coach/judge and mentor in various startup programs.
If there were only five things I could bring to an island to live on, Terrel Miedaner’s deeply thought-provoking fiction book The Soul of Anna Klane would be among those five items.
His book is on a question which is more fundamental than the one on the I in AI. The Soul of Anna Klane ponders the many sides of the question of what constitutes life and consciousness: the scientific, the atheistic, and the religious with due respect.
It showed me how little we know about the brain, mind, and soul. And if we don’t understand the center of human intelligence, how can we make sense of the I in AI? Undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read. For this reason, it would be on an island where I only possess five things so that I’m not distracted from reading it again and again. The effect would…
She's the golden darling of a wealthy genius. A child-prodigy. Yogi adept. And dying of brain tumor. She wants to heal herself, but the courts and the doctors cry "no" - and enter her brain with an incredible million-dollar probe that cures her body, while it splits her soul -- and sends it hurtling into a psychic hell...
Only Anatol Klane knows of his daughter's spirit-death. Now he must take her life... and convince an astonished world that he has set her free...
Coming from two very different backgrounds gives Dean and I a unique ‘view’ of a topic that we are both hugely passionate about: artificial intelligence. Our work together has gifted us a broader perspective in terms of understanding the development of and the philosophy beneath what is coined as artificial intelligence today and where we truly stand in terms of its potential for good – and evil. Our book list is intended to provide a great starting point from where you can jump into this incredibly absorbing topic and draw your own conclusions about where the future might take us.
As a couple interested in the potential impacts of technology, we were immediately drawn to the question this book poses: "Will technology change what it means to be human?" In 2084, John Lennox addresses this question thoughtfully, offering a perspective grounded in both mathematics and philosophy while incorporating insights from his Christian worldview.
What we found truly compelling about this book was how Lennox draws parallels between the nature of humanity and the possibilities and limitations of AI. He delves into the Christian concept of the soul, our inherent moral sense, and our hopes for the future, effectively highlighting the distinction between machines and human beings.
You don't have to be a computer scientist to have discerning conversations about artificial intelligence and technology. We all wonder where we're headed. Even now, technological innovations and machine learning have a daily impact on our lives, and many of us see good reasons to dread the future. Are we doomed to the surveillance society imagined in George Orwell's 1984?
Mathematician and philosopher John Lennox believes that there are credible answers to the daunting questions that AI poses, and he shows that Christianity has some very serious, sensible, evidence-based responses about…
As a kid, I loved fantasy; it was my escape from real life. Portal Fantasy is one of the oldest sub-genres in that regard, with works such as Wizard of Oz, Through the Looking Glass, and Chronicles of Narnia, to name a few. LitRPG is a newer genre, though its roots extend back to the 80s. Fantasy is full of magical worlds that embrace the reader’s mind, allowing them to live beyond their own life. I have experienced what it is like to fall in love countless times, to fly a ship through the sky using magic and swordfight, and to die and be reborn. Through these stories, I have lived.
I know many people seem to like his other series more, but this is one that actually grabbed me. An AI intelligence being sent back to the past, only its one that has magic. I mean come on, how fun does that premise sound? It uses a fairly traditional LitRPG setup, but there is nothing wrong with that in the slightest.
I do have a few nitpicks with the story, but they can be explained away with magic more than anything else.
After tragically losing the only person he ever cared about, Alexander, a rogue artificial intelligence, opens a portal to an alternate dimension to escape his grief.
Scanning trillions of different dimensions, Alexander finally finds a world that is reminiscent of the only time he was ever happy, back when he could play virtual reality games with his only friend. He doesn't know why, or how, such a world exists, but he doesn't care. All he cares about is finding a place where he can escape the misery of Earth and start over.
Little does attorney Hiram Garbuncle know the danger he’s getting into when he reluctantly defends an immigrant brutally beaten by two policemen during a traffic stop and charged with resisting arrest.
Plot twists and turns take the reader on a suspense-filled roller coaster ride as the attorney’s negligence causes a…
I’ve always been drawn to science books that ask the big questions - about the universe, humanity, and the challenges we face. As a kid, I would spend hours reading about the mysteries of space, technology, and philosophy, captivated by the way these fields intersect. My fascination with AI and complex systems deepened during my time in the Army, where I began to see how technology could shape global security in profound and often unpredictable ways. Today, I explore these ideas as a researcher and educator, focusing on the risks and ethical dilemmas of AI and autonomous systems. I hope the books on this list spark your curiosity.
Susan Schneider’s exploration of AI and consciousness raises profound questions about what it means to be human in a future shaped by intelligent machines.
I’m especially drawn to her thoughtful analysis of the possibility of mind-uploading, AI consciousness, and the ethical implications of merging human and machine intelligence. Her work ties directly to themes that I like to explore in my writing. Schneider and I both grapple with the unknowns of delegating decision-making to AI, particularly in high-stakes realms like warfare.
Hailed by the Washington Post as "a sure-footed and witty guide to slippery ethical terrain," a philosophical exploration of AI and the future of the mind that Astronomer Royal Martin Rees calls "profound and entertaining"
Humans may not be Earth's most intelligent beings for much longer: the world champions of chess, Go, and Jeopardy! are now all AIs. Given the rapid pace of progress in AI, many predict that it could advance to human-level intelligence within the next several decades. From there, it could quickly outpace human intelligence. What do these developments mean for the future of the mind?
