Heads-up on new AI book

Mark your calendar: AI and the Art of Being Human launching Oct 14

I’ll be posting more details on this soon, but I am delighted to let you know that my new book AI and the Art of Being Human (co-authored with co-founder of Blitzscaling Ventures Jeff Abbott¹) is scheduled for release on October 14! (Website here)

The book is the result of a collaboration that started earlier this year as we both realized there was an urgent need for a practical guide to thriving in a world where AI can replicate many of the things we think of as defining who we are.

There are, of course, a lot of books on AI coming out at the moment (with more in the pipeline). Many of these are autobiographical insights into AI, speculative books on AI futures, and manifestos on what we should be thinking about AI—and why.

But there are remarkably few guides to living, working, and thriving with AI. And none that we could find that provide basic tools and insights for making sense of what this means when AI seems to be getting increasingly good at doing you. And this is despite us both coming across more and more people hungry for such a guide.

So we decided to write one.

The resulting book — AI and the Art of Being Human: A guide to thriving with AI while rediscovering yourself in the process — is aimed at anyone grappling with how to find and create meaning in a world where artificial intelligent apps, agents, bots, systems, and more, are increasingly ubiquitous.

This includes founders, tech startups, and large organizations (public and private) that are developing and using AI tools.

But it also includes educators, students, parents, artists, writers, and pretty much anyone asking “What makes me me when AI can finish my sentences, replicate my style, and predict my choices?”

I’ll be sending subscribers to this Substack details on how to get hold of an Advanced Review Copy of the book in a few days’ time. But in the meantime, a quick peek at what to expect:

Practical tools

The book is built around 21 practical tools for finding meaning and thriving in an AI-dominated world. These are sophisticated enough for organizations to adopt and put into practice, yet simple enough for anyone to use in their personal and professional lives.

Illustrative narratives

The tools and insights in the book are introduced, developed, and demonstrated, through fictional illustrative narratives. This was a rather bold move on our part (especially in a book like this), but one that opened up possibilities that would otherwise have been impossible to explore.

Part of the reason for this is that real-life cases simply don’t reflect emerging challenges and opportunities in ways that make what we explore in the book meaningful and accessible. We are, in a very real sense, still on the edge of navigating how to thrive in an age of AI, and very much in a learning phase.

Also, let’s be honest, when you try to shoehorn what you want to say (and believe needs saying) into someone else has experienced, something often has to give.

By using fictional illustrative narratives, we were also able to embrace scenarios that span generations, locations, cultures, professional circumstances, and lived experiences.

Business savvy and academic insights

Something that excites me a lot about the book is how we managed to weave together our experiences and insights as a venture capitalist (Jeff) and a dyed in the wool academic, educator, and ponderer on the complexities of living with advanced technologies (me). The result is a book that cuts across domains and thinking about AI in ways that few others do.

You’ll have to read the book when it comes out to see how this works in practice, but I was amazed by how generative the experience was.

Guiding framework

Underpinning this, the book draws on a guiding framework that is built on four pillars: Curiosity, Intentionality, Clarity, and Care. You’ll have to wait for more details on this, but these underlying concepts thread through every narrative, every tool, and every insight in AI and the Art of Being Human.

Motorcycle maintenance?

It’s no coincidence that the book’s title has subtle echoes of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. This was a highly influential book in Jeff’s life, and does make an appearance here — as well as leaving a fingerprint on some of the ideas we explore.

A meta-exploration of being human in an age of AI

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the book—and to me one of the most interesting parts of working on it—is that we intentionally worked hand in glove with AI in developing and writing it.

This was a long, methodical and unique process that spanned several months, and was meticulously built around a carefully crafted process and workflow. The result was a book that, I believe, transcends what Jeff or I could have written on our own, and yet remains deeply human.

I’ll be writing more about this over the next few weeks, as I was quite taken aback with what resulted from the “collaboration.” I would add here though that, despite our use of AI, every word, sentence, idea, tool, and source in the final book has our very human stamp on it.

I’d also add that this is as far as possible as you can get from a weekend piece of AI “slop” (as hundreds of hours of my time will attest to!)

Look out for more on the book as launch date gets nearer, and mark your calendars for October 14!

1. Jeff is also founder of the hugely successful global AI network AI Salon