There were plenty of thought-provoking books about artificial intelligence published in 2025. Karen Hao’s Empire of AI, about OpenAI and Sam Altman, and the Eliezer Yudkowsky / Nate Soares collaboration If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, about artificial general intelligence, come to mind.

This is not that list.

This is a list of the books that most influenced my own thinking about AI in the past year. Some of them were published recently. Others came out years ago. Many of them don’t directly address artificial intelligence, which is what made them so valuable. I like to read around and near AI and watch what happens when unexpected ideas collide.

In no particular order:

Animals Robots Gods: Adventures in the Moral Imagination, by Webb Keane (Princeton University Press, 2025, 180 pp., $27.95)

Okay I guess there is an order to my list because Animals Robots Gods was my absolute favorite book of 2025. I happened upon it while idling in the philosophy section of Powell’s City of Books in Portland. Webb Keane is a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, and that far-removed perspective—not a technologist, engineer, lawyer, or futurist—makes all the difference. Keane explores the moral relationships between humans, animals, and robots, which includes AI. At the heart of this book lies the question: How should we treat each other? By drawing upon a deep base of anthropological field work, he offers both WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and non-WEIRD perspectives on the conundrum of human-AI interactions as the two parties grow more and more alike. This is a deeply accessible book. No technical knowledge required, only an abiding interest in the human condition at the quarter-turn of the 21st Century.

Law and Technology: A Methodical Approach, by Ryan Calo (Oxford University Press, 152 pp., $39.99)

Ryan Calo is a law professor at the University of Washington who’s become a galvanizing force in Seattle’s emerging tech-and-society scene. Calo’s specialty is law and technology and in this book he sets out to define exactly what binds that field together. Calo challenges the idea that technology moves too fast to be regulated, and that technology is inevitable “when in fact it’s highly contingent” on social adoption. Tech companies hype the “tech is ungovernable” idea in order to evade responsibility and confuse tech-unsavvy lawmakers with the ol’ razzle-dazzle. Calo counters: “There is no legitimate reason to believe technology to be any less governable than marriage, markets, travel, religion, or any other set of social facts that make up our complicated world.” What’s required is the will (on the part of lawmakers) to learn about and understand technology. This book is a fine place to start.

Copyright’s Highway: From Gutenberg to the Celestial Jukebox, by Paul Goldstein (Stanford University Press, 2003, 256 pp., $6 used)

This slim history of copyright was written more than twenty years ago but has become more relevant than ever. The author, a Stanford law professor, is the author of a five-volume treatise on U.S. copyright law and an internationally recognized expert in the field. Copyright’s Highway is meant for readers like you and me who are dealing with today’s AI copyright infringement battle and wonder: Where did copyright originate? What is its purpose today? Short answers: England, late 1600s. To encourage the production of creative works. The shifting boundary between private property and public use has always been a point of contention, and Goldstein narrates the 300-year story with colorful examples—Ernest Hemingway! Photocopiers! The VCR! 2 Live Crew!—and compelling detail.

Privacy: A Short History, by David Vincent (Polity Books, 2016, 189 pp., $24.95)

Another brief history of an exceedingly deep subject—and one with obvious relevance to our Age of AI. The British social historian David Vincent traces the evolution of privacy, in concept and practice, from the Middle Ages to our own struggles with state surveillance and the commercialization of personal data. Privacy has forever been entwined with property, as the very definition places one apart from the public crowd. And as property pairs with wealth and class, privacy becomes more available as one prospers and less as one struggles. Vincent shows how early housing separated humans from livestock, and then “upper” humans from “lower” humans and so on. This is a book that pairs well with Bill Bryson’s delicious At Home: A Short History of Private Life.

Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking, by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander (Basic Books, 2013, 592 pp., $35)

I wrote at length about Surfaces and Essences in an AI Humanist post a few weeks back, AI and the war of analogies. From that column: “The reason I find Surfaces and Essences helpful is that it provides a foundation for my own ongoing construction of understanding around AI. The competing voices around AI right now are engaged in a battle fought largely with dueling analogies.” Also, it’s just a beautifully designed and well-published book. Well done, Basic Books.

They sit there on my bookshelf tossing guilt at me every day. I swear I’m going to crack them soon.

Machine Decision is Not Final: China and the History and Future of Artificial Intelligence, a book that just came out last month investigating non-Western perspectives on machines, robots, and AI.

Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications, not a joke, a real book on philosophy, ethics, and technology.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, yes the Philip K. Dick classic, the inspiration for Blade Runner and all. First published in 1968, I’m looking forward to re-reading it in light of our current ethical situation with AI, robots, et al.