Products You May Like
Everyone has an opinion about AI—but is it an informed one? It’s easy to get swept up in the firestorm of online discourse, but it’s worth putting in the time to learn about this technology first.
At the same time, we’re also having a reckoning with social media; Australia recently banned social media for kids, and many countries around the world are considering following suit.
AI is not limited to online spaces: data centers are being built (and opposed), the global economy is deeply invested in the industry, and it’s upending a wide range of careers.
That’s why task #18 of the 2026 Read Harder Challenge is “Read a nonfiction book about AI or social media.” We should be entering into the debates around AI and social media with the requisite background knowledge.
Besides, there’s something satisfying about picking up a book about social media or AI: it’s the exact opposite of the instant gratification, short-form content that both technologies encourage.
I’ll show my hand here and say that most of these books are critical of both social media and AI. You can complete this task by picking up a “how to make money quick using AI” ebook, but it’s not exactly the spirit of the prompt.
These books range from measured responses to AI that weigh both the potential and the risks, to a straightforward manifesto on why you should delete your social media accounts right now.
Empire of AI by Karen Hao
Karen Hao is an AI expert and investigative journalist who began covering OpenAI in 2019 and followed it as it grew and subsequently abandoned the values it began with. A winner of the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, this bestseller is a perfect place to start if you’re looking to learn more about AI and ChatGPT in particular. —Danika Ellis
Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier
This book was first published in 2018, but its arguments are just as relevant today. Lanier goes through ten reasons that the harms of using social media outweigh any benefits, including its effects on our emotions (making us angrier and less empathetic), our communication skills, and our politics. —Danika Ellis
All Access members, read on for six more nonfiction books about AI and social media.
The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AIby Cory Doctorow
Cory Doctorow is a journalist and sci-fi author who has been writing about technology for decades. You might be familiar with his recent book, Enshittification, about how the internet has gotten so much worse and what we can do about it. This is his newest book: “A short, provocative guide to what’s good, bad, and stupid about AI and the discourse around AI.” Doctorow recognizes the potential of AI as well as the dangers of the AI hype bubble we find ourselves in. —Danika Ellis
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara
What does it mean to be a person in a moment when technology is increasingly good at performing humanity? What does it mean to create art and seek connection when algorithms purport to replace both? Vara’s attempt to co-write a book with AI ventures to surprising places and achieves a level of nuance that is all too uncommon in today’s discourse. Part performance art, part social commentary, this is the book about AI and creativity I’ve been waiting for. —Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
The wildest thing about this book is that it’s (allegedly!) nonfiction. Scenes of shark attacks, bacchanalian events lousy with real-life villains, and workplace toxicity beyond anything I’ve ever read in Ask a Manager abound in this memoir about Wynn-Williams’ time as a global policy leader at then-Facebook. It’s hard to imagine 2025 producing a memoir as page-turning and juicy that’s also written with as much wry humor and fluidity. I now have a go-to book to recommend anyone who loves tell-all or whistleblower nonfiction, and if Wynn-Williams finds another subject to pen a book about, it’ll be an automatic buy for me. —S. Zainab Williams
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia
AI is being incorporated into all aspects of our lives, often in ways we aren’t aware of. Madhumita Murgia spotlights several everyday people—”a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile”—to show how automated systems have profoundly changed their lives and how this new era of AI can rob us of our agency. —Danika Ellis
The Story of Your Life by Kathryn Jezer-Morton
Are you living for the algorithm? Journalist Kathryn Jezer-Morton combines research and interviews to show how social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have changed not only how we document and share our lives, but also the choices we make. Jezer-Morton argues that they have shaped what we consider a life well-lived. It’s a reminder to step back from viewing everything through your phone’s camera lens. —Danika Ellis
Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines by Joy Buolamwini
This book reads more like Buolamwini’s memoir, detailing her research on AI. She reveals how AI can have biases based on race, gender, skin color, and disability — the “encoded discrimination and exclusion” in technology. She also argues how AI is a reflection of its creators.
Unmasking AI demonstrates that discrimination against marginalized people occurs not only in society at large but also in the world of AI. —Arvyn Cerezo
This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.