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Long before ChatGPT, there was ELIZA. Created at MIT in the 1960s by computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum, the groundbreaking chatbot startled users and raised early questions about what machines can understand and what humans are willing to see in them (a phenomenon now known as the "ELIZA effect"). Sixty years later, those questions have become harder to ignore. The books below examine AI from a range of perspectives, from the origins of chatbots and the science of human language to large language models and the opportunities and challenges of increasingly intelligent machines.
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Sarah Ciston, David M. Berry, Anthony C. Hay, Mark C. Marino, Peter Millican, Jeff Shrager, Arthur I. Schwarz, and Peggy Weil; Foreword by Janet H. Murray
Inventing ELIZA
How the original ELIZA chatbot transformed ideas about AI and society’s response to them.
"A masterful contribution to the emerging discipline of software studies.”
—Science
"An extraordinary accomplishment in the history of computing."
—Scott Richmond, author of Cinema’s Bodily Illusions
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Yosef Grodzinsky
How Deeply Human Is Language?
A leading neurolinguist explains linguistic theory and large language models—the top contenders for understanding human language—and evaluates them in the context of the brain.
"This beautifully told story is important for anyone interested in the science of language and its neural encoding, and their relation to the promises of generative AI."
—Danny Fox, Anshen-Chomsky Professor of Language & Thought, MIT
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Stephan Raaijmakers
Large Language Models
An in-depth history of large language models—and what their ubiquity, disruption, and creativity mean from a wider sociopolitical perspective.
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De Kai
Raising AI
From the pioneer of translation AIs like Google, Yahoo, and Bing Translate, an accessible and authoritative guide to AI—as well as a framework of empowerment for a future with our artificial children.
"[A] beautiful, even profound, new book"
—Forbes
Read an excerpt »
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Ronald J. Brachman and Hector J. Levesque
Machines Like Us
How we can create artificial intelligence with broad, robust common sense rather than narrow, specialized expertise.
"Machines Like Us, for those who want to better understand a key part of intelligence we still haven’t been able to clarify and build for artificial intelligence, is an excellent overview.”
—Forbes
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Katharina A. Zweig
Awkward Intelligence
An expert offers a guide to where we should use artificial intelligence—and where we should not.
“In an accessible and approachable way, Zweig engages with important issues ranging from technical AI to ethics.”
—Arthur I. Miller, University College London; author of The Artist in the Machine
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Blaise Agüera y Arcas
What Is Intelligence?
What intelligence really is, and how AI’s emergence is a natural consequence of evolution.
"Entertaining and thought-provoking.”
—The Financial Times
"A profound exploration of how mind, matter, and machine intervene.”
—Bloomberg News
"A can’t-miss book with which modern culture will have to reckon."
—Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Read a conversation with the author at Big Think »
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David Weinberger
Beautiful Particulars
A fresh and eye-opening new explanation of AI—and how its focus on specifics is changing our ideas about ourselves and our world.
“When David Weinberger, one of our best decoders of digital transformation, looks at generative AI, you need to pay attention. His explanation of how large language models can expand human perception is provocative and illuminating. Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT will be jealous.”
—Steven Levy, author of Hackers, Crypto, and Facebook: The Insider Story
Learn more / pre-order the book »
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