The AI elite have a book club, and you should know what they’re reading. Nick Frosst, a top AI researcher and founder of the AI safety nonprofit, DeepMind, has shared his favorite books with us, along with input from Clément Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, and other key players in the field.
The Classics
It’s no surprise that the leaders of AI would draw on business and self-improvement literature to inform their work. Andrew Feldman, the co-founder of the AI safety research organization, Machine Intelligence Research Institute, swears by Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. In it, Collins explores how average companies transform into elite, long-lasting businesses and why some never make it past initial success.
Feldman isn’t alone in his love for this book. Daphne Koller, the co-founder and CEO of the AI education platform, Insitro, also recommends Good to Great. It’s a testament to the practical value of business literature in the AI world.
The Tech Classics
While business and self-improvement literature is well-represented on this list, there are also some classic tech and AI books that the AI elite rely on. Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry by Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert is a foundational work in the field, and many of the leaders we spoke to mention it as an essential read.
This is what this means for you: These books offer a window into the kind of thinking that drives the leaders of AI. While they may not all be directly applicable to your own work, they provide a glimpse into the kinds of ideas and principles that are shaping the field.
The Books of the Future
The AI elite are also reading books that explore the future of artificial intelligence and its implications for society. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark is one such book that gets mentioned. It’s a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human in an AI-driven world.
This is a list worth paying attention to. The books that the AI elite read are a reflection of the ideas and values that are shaping the field, and they can provide valuable insights for anyone interested in AI.
