Recommended Reading and Insights from Our Consultants
Recommended Reading and Insights from Our Consultants
Recommended Reading and Insights from Our Consultants
Books, frameworks, and resources hand-picked by X-Centric's senior consultants and event speakers — organized around the topics that matter most to enterprise IT leaders.
Books, frameworks, and resources hand-picked by X-Centric's senior consultants and event speakers — organized around the topics that matter most to enterprise IT leaders.
Books, frameworks, and resources hand-picked by X-Centric's senior consultants and event speakers — organized around the topics that matter most to enterprise IT leaders.
Essential Reads for Enterprise IT Leaders
Essential Reads for Enterprise IT Leaders
Essential Reads for Enterprise IT Leaders
Personally reviewed and annotated by our senior consultants.
All
Governance
Ethics & Society
Technical & Research
Business & Future Of Work
Privacy & Security
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work and Life
by Pascal Bornet · 2024
A practical guide to AI agents and autonomous systems how organizations can harness agentic AI to transform operations, workflows, and business models.
ISBN:
B0F2GVNFTJ
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant
by Tae Kim · 2024
A compelling biography and business chronicle that tells the story of how Nvidia, once a struggling startup, became a global powerhouse in graphics and AI.
ISBN:
9781324086727
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI
by Neil D. Lawrence · 2024
A Cambridge professor explores what makes human intelligence irreplaceable and how AI forces us to rethink what it means to be human.
ISBN:
9780241625248
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means
by Christopher Summerfield · 2024
A cognitive neuroscientist at DeepMind explains how large language models work and what they reveal about intelligence, language, and the nature of mind.
ISBN:
9780593831717
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
How To Think About AI: A Guide For The Perplexed
by Richard Susskind · 2024
A clear-eyed, jargon-free guide for executives and professionals on how to think about AI's capabilities, limitations, and their implications for every field.
ISBN:
9780241693896
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
by Daniel Susskind · 2020
An Oxford economist makes the case that AI and automation may genuinely reduce the need for human labor and explores what social and policy responses are needed.
ISBN:
9781399808576
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
by Max Tegmark · 2017
An MIT physicist's accessible exploration of the long-term implications of superintelligent AI for society, democracy, and human identity.
ISBN:
9781101970317
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Me, My Customer, and AI: The New Rules of Entrepreneurship
by Henrik Werdelin · 2024
A practical guide for entrepreneurs and business leaders on how to rethink customer relationships and business strategy in an AI-native world.
ISBN:
B0FCSQ1C7H
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Solutions That Deliver Business Results
From strategic planning to secure implementation, X-Centric helps organizations modernize across AI, cloud, cybersecurity, disaster recovery, mergers and acquisitions, and modern workplace solutions built to drive measurable business outcomes at enterprise scale.
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
by Ruha Benjamin · 2019
Sociologist Ruha Benjamin examines how technologies encode and amplify racial discrimination required reading for responsible AI design.
ISBN:
9781509526406
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future
by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan · 2021
Paired short stories and rigorous analysis from a leading AI researcher paint plausible scenarios of how AI will reshape societies across the globe over the next two decades.
ISBN:
9780593238295
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Guardrails: Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI
by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger · 2024
Argues that the key to safe AI isn't restriction but well-designed guardrails that guide human judgment a framework highly relevant to AI governance programs.
ISBN:
9780691257747
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
by Fei-Fei Li · 2023
A memoir and scientific account from the creator of ImageNet one of the most important stories of how modern AI was actually built, by a pioneer who shaped it.
ISBN:
9781250898104
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines
by Joy Buolamwini · 2023
The MIT researcher who exposed algorithmic bias in facial recognition recounts her fight for AI accountability a defining book in AI ethics.
ISBN:
9780593241837
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
by Mustafa Suleyman · 2023
From a DeepMind co-founder: how AI and synthetic biology are converging into a wave of technology that governments and organizations must urgently prepare to govern.
ISBN:
9780593593967
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
by Kate Crawford · 2021
A sweeping examination of the hidden environmental, labor, and political costs behind AI systems essential critical context for any AI governance professional.
ISBN:
9780300264630
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
All Hands on Tech: The AI-Powered Citizen Revolution
by Thomas H. Davenport · 2024
All Hands on Tech describes a revolution in work powered by technology becoming more human and humans becoming more comfortable with technology.
ISBN:
9781394245901
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
by Marietje Schaake · 2024
This book explores the profound impact of technology companies on democracy and offers solutions to reclaim democratic governance from corporate influence.
ISBN:
9780691241197
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
by Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor · 2024
Cuts through AI hype with rigorous analysis of which AI applications are genuinely effective versus those that are unreliable or misleading vital for informed decision-making.
ISBN:
9780691249148
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
The Quantified Worker
by Ifeoma Ajunwa · 2023
A legal and historical analysis of how the modern workplace has become deeply data-driven, with big data and artificial intelligence (AI) playing a central role in monitoring, measuring, and managing employees
ISBN:
9781316636954
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology
by Anu Bradford · 2023
A Columbia law professor maps the three competing models of tech regulation American, European, and Chinese and what each means for AI governance globally.
ISBN:
9780197802731
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us
by Gary F. Marcus · 2024
A prominent AI critic argues for concrete regulatory interventions and accountability structures to ensure AI development serves society rather than a narrow tech elite.
ISBN:
9780262551069
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
by Yuval Noah Harari · 2024
Harari traces how information networks from writing to algorithms shape civilizations, and what AI networks may mean for human cooperation and democracy.
ISBN:
9780593734230
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI
by Madhumita Murgia · 2024
A Financial Times journalist chronicles the human stories of people whose lives have been shaped — often invisibly — by algorithmic decision-making around the world.
ISBN:
9781250868480
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future
by Orly Lobel · 2024
Challenges purely pessimistic views of AI bias, arguing that technology if governed well can actively advance equality and human flourishing.
ISBN:
9781541774759
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
by Brian Merchant · 2023
The author intertwines a lucid examination of our current age with the story of the Luddites, showing how automation changed our world and is shaping our future.
ISBN:
9780316487740
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
by Christopher L. Hayes · 2025
In the information age, attention is scarce, while information is abundant, creating a structural crisis where platforms, advertisers, and media outlets compete to capture every spare moment of our mental bandwidth
ISBN:
9780593653135
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
by Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna · 2025
This book provides a long charge sheet of the prominent and less well-known harms of AI.
ISBN:
9780063418561
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip
by Stephen Witt · 2025
The definitive account of how Nvidia and the GPU became the engine of the AI revolution — essential context for understanding the infrastructure behind modern AI.
ISBN:
9780593832691
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains
by Max Bennett · 2023
This book describes the evolutionary journey that led to the human brain’s remarkable intelligence.
ISBN:
9780063286337
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
On Privacy and Technology
by Daniel J. Solove · 2024
A leading privacy law scholar offers an authoritative framework for understanding how technology reshapes privacy rights and what organizations must do in response.
ISBN:
9780197759561
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It
by Kashmir Hill · 2023
An investigative journalist exposes Clearview AI and the rise of facial recognition, revealing the profound privacy stakes of AI surveillance systems.
ISBN:
9780593448564
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
by Chris Miller · 2022
A Pulitzer finalist tracing the geopolitical battle for semiconductor supremacy foundational reading for understanding AI hardware dependencies and supply chain risks.
ISBN:
9781982172008
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can't Think the Way We Do
by Erik J. Larson · 2021
A Harvard computer scientist argues that genuine AI — machines that think like humans — is fundamentally impossible with current approaches, challenging the hype around deep learning and neural networks.
ISBN:
9780674983519
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
by Cathy O'Neil · 2016
A data scientist exposes how poorly designed algorithms embedded in hiring, lending, education, and criminal justice are amplifying inequality and undermining democracy — a foundational text in algorithmic accountability.
ISBN:
9780553418811
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Age of AI and Our Human Future
by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt & Daniel Huttenlocher · 2021
Three leading figures in diplomacy, technology, and academia examine how AI is transforming human cognition, geopolitics, and society — and what it means for the future of human agency.
ISBN:
9780316273800
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed
by Ray Kurzweil · 2012
Futurist Ray Kurzweil explores the pattern-recognition theory of the human neocortex and argues we can reverse-engineer the brain to build truly intelligent machines — a touchstone in AI research history.
ISBN:
9780670025299
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
Deep Learning
by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio & Aaron Courville · 2016
The definitive academic textbook on deep learning, covering the mathematical and conceptual foundations of neural networks. Essential reading for those wanting a rigorous technical grounding in modern AI.
ISBN:
9780262035613
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
by Karen Hao · 2025
An investigative account of OpenAI's rise its internal culture, power struggles, and the gap between its stated safety mission and its commercial ambitions. Essential for understanding the current AI landscape.
ISBN:
9780593657508
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
by James Barrat · 2013
One of the earliest mainstream warnings about the existential risks of superintelligent AI, drawing on interviews with leading researchers to argue that advanced AI may be the last invention humanity ever makes.
ISBN:
9780312622374
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
by Pedro Domingos · 2015
A University of Washington professor surveys the five major schools of machine learning and proposes they can be unified into a single 'Master Algorithm' — an accessible roadmap of the field's intellectual landscape.
ISBN:
9780465065707
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
by Ethan Mollick · 2024
A Wharton professor offers practical, research-backed guidance on how individuals and organizations can collaborate effectively with AI tools focused on what works today rather than speculative futures.
ISBN:
9780593185247
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
by Kai-Fu Lee · 2018
A former Google China president examines the US-China AI competition, arguing China's advantages in data and implementation will reshape the global economic and geopolitical order prescient and widely read.
ISBN:
9781328545640
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
by Nick Bostrom · 2014
Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom's landmark analysis of the long-term risks of superintelligent AI — the book that put AI existential risk on the mainstream agenda and influenced policy debates worldwide.
ISBN:
9780199678112
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Trust.: Responsible AI, Innovation, Privacy and Data Leadership
by Dominique Shelton Leipzig · 2023
A practical framework for executives on building trustworthy AI systems covering data governance, privacy accountability, and how to lead organizations through responsible innovation.
ISBN:
9781119985310
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State
by Michael Steinberger · 2025
A revealing portrait of Palantir CEO Alex Karp and the data analytics company that became a cornerstone of government surveillance — raising urgent questions about corporate power, civil liberties, and AI.
ISBN:
9781982196097
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
by Sarah Wynn-Williams · 2025
A former Meta policy executive delivers a damning insider account of how the social media giant prioritized growth and profit over societal harm essential context for AI governance and corporate accountability.
ISBN:
9781250391230
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
by Nita A. Farahany · 2023
A Duke law professor argues that brain-computer interfaces and neurotechnology create urgent new threats to cognitive liberty and mental privacy — a forward-looking legal and ethical framework.
ISBN:
9781250272959
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World
by Parmy Olson · 2024
A Bloomberg journalist's account of the fierce competition between Google DeepMind and OpenAI — the personalities, the breakthroughs, and the high-stakes race to build transformative AI.
ISBN:
9781250337740
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
by Eliezer Yudkowsky · 2025
The influential AI safety researcher makes a stark, uncompromising case that building superintelligent AI without solving the alignment problem would be catastrophic — a challenge to accelerationist assumptions.
ISBN:
9780316576079
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
by Cory Doctorow · 2025
Cory Doctorow coins 'enshittification' to describe how digital platforms degrade over time as they extract value from users and partners. Essential reading on the structural incentives shaping tech and AI platforms.
ISBN:
9780374619329
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
by Dan Wang · 2025
A technology analyst examines China's state-directed industrial strategy in semiconductors, AI, and advanced manufacturing — essential context for understanding the geopolitics of the global technology race.
ISBN:
9781324106036
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Reprogramming the American Dream: From Rural America to Silicon Valley Making AI Serve Us All
by Kevin Scott · 2020
Microsoft's CTO draws on his rural Appalachian upbringing to argue that AI must be designed to benefit all Americans, not just coastal tech elites a vision for inclusive AI development.
ISBN:
9780062879875
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values
by Brian Christian · 2020
A deep exploration of the alignment problem the challenge of building AI systems that reliably do what humans want. Combines technical depth with philosophical clarity and is essential for AI safety professionals.
ISBN:
9780393635829
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Not with a Bug, But with a Sticker: Attacks on Machine Learning Systems and What To Do About Them
by Ram Shankar Siva Kumar · 2023
A Microsoft engineer provides a practical technical guide to adversarial attacks on machine learning systems — essential cybersecurity reading for anyone deploying AI in enterprise environments.
ISBN:
9781119883975
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age
by Brad Smith & Carol Ann Browne · 2019
Microsoft's President examines the dual-use nature of technology — as both a tool for human progress and a weapon for harm — and argues for thoughtful corporate and government responsibility.
ISBN:
9781984877710
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
by Shoshana Zuboff · 2019
Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff's landmark work coins surveillance capitalism' to describe how tech companies extract behavioral data to predict and influence human behavior a defining framework.
ISBN:
9781610395694
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Algorithmic Leader: How to Be Smart When Machines Are Smarter Than You
by Mike Walsh · 2019
A practical guide for executives on how to lead effectively in an algorithm-driven world — covering decision-making, organizational design, and the leadership skills required in an AI-augmented workplace.
ISBN:
9781989025338
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
by Martha Wells · 2017
A science fiction novella about a part-human, part-robot security unit that just wants to watch TV and avoid interacting with humans. Widely beloved in tech circles for its thoughtful exploration of AI identity and autonomy.
ISBN:
9781664466845
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
by Jonathan Haidt · 2024
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that smartphones and social media have fundamentally rewired childhood, causing a global mental health crisis among young people with urgent implications for technology policy.
ISBN:
9780593655030
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld
by Jamie Bartlett · 2014
An investigative journalist takes readers inside the hidden corners of the internet from dark web markets to extremist communities exploring the complex tensions between privacy, freedom, and harm online.
ISBN:
9780434023158
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Privacy on the Ground: Driving Corporate Behavior in the United States and Europe
by Kenneth A. Bamberger, Deirdre K. Mulligan · 2015
This intensive five-nation study goes inside corporations to examine how the people charged with protecting privacy actually do their work, and what kinds of regulation effectively shape their behavior.
ISBN:
9780262029988
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld
by Jamie Bartlett · 2014
An investigative journalist takes readers inside the hidden corners of the internet from dark web markets to extremist communities exploring the complex tensions between privacy, freedom, and harm online.
ISBN:
9780434023158
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
All
Governance
Ethics & Society
Technical & Research
Business & Future Of Work
Privacy & Security
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work and Life
by Pascal Bornet · 2024
A practical guide to AI agents and autonomous systems how organizations can harness agentic AI to transform operations, workflows, and business models.
ISBN:
B0F2GVNFTJ
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant
by Tae Kim · 2024
A compelling biography and business chronicle that tells the story of how Nvidia, once a struggling startup, became a global powerhouse in graphics and AI.
ISBN:
9781324086727
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI
by Neil D. Lawrence · 2024
A Cambridge professor explores what makes human intelligence irreplaceable and how AI forces us to rethink what it means to be human.
ISBN:
9780241625248
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means
by Christopher Summerfield · 2024
A cognitive neuroscientist at DeepMind explains how large language models work and what they reveal about intelligence, language, and the nature of mind.
ISBN:
9780593831717
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
How To Think About AI: A Guide For The Perplexed
by Richard Susskind · 2024
A clear-eyed, jargon-free guide for executives and professionals on how to think about AI's capabilities, limitations, and their implications for every field.
ISBN:
9780241693896
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
by Daniel Susskind · 2020
An Oxford economist makes the case that AI and automation may genuinely reduce the need for human labor and explores what social and policy responses are needed.
ISBN:
9781399808576
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
by Max Tegmark · 2017
An MIT physicist's accessible exploration of the long-term implications of superintelligent AI for society, democracy, and human identity.
ISBN:
9781101970317
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Me, My Customer, and AI: The New Rules of Entrepreneurship
by Henrik Werdelin · 2024
A practical guide for entrepreneurs and business leaders on how to rethink customer relationships and business strategy in an AI-native world.
ISBN:
B0FCSQ1C7H
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Solutions That Deliver Business Results
From strategic planning to secure implementation, X-Centric helps organizations modernize across AI, cloud, cybersecurity, disaster recovery, mergers and acquisitions, and modern workplace solutions built to drive measurable business outcomes at enterprise scale.
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
by Ruha Benjamin · 2019
Sociologist Ruha Benjamin examines how technologies encode and amplify racial discrimination required reading for responsible AI design.
ISBN:
9781509526406
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future
by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan · 2021
Paired short stories and rigorous analysis from a leading AI researcher paint plausible scenarios of how AI will reshape societies across the globe over the next two decades.
ISBN:
9780593238295
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Guardrails: Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI
by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger · 2024
Argues that the key to safe AI isn't restriction but well-designed guardrails that guide human judgment a framework highly relevant to AI governance programs.
ISBN:
9780691257747
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
by Fei-Fei Li · 2023
A memoir and scientific account from the creator of ImageNet one of the most important stories of how modern AI was actually built, by a pioneer who shaped it.
ISBN:
9781250898104
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines
by Joy Buolamwini · 2023
The MIT researcher who exposed algorithmic bias in facial recognition recounts her fight for AI accountability a defining book in AI ethics.
ISBN:
9780593241837
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
by Mustafa Suleyman · 2023
From a DeepMind co-founder: how AI and synthetic biology are converging into a wave of technology that governments and organizations must urgently prepare to govern.
ISBN:
9780593593967
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
by Kate Crawford · 2021
A sweeping examination of the hidden environmental, labor, and political costs behind AI systems essential critical context for any AI governance professional.
ISBN:
9780300264630
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
All Hands on Tech: The AI-Powered Citizen Revolution
by Thomas H. Davenport · 2024
All Hands on Tech describes a revolution in work powered by technology becoming more human and humans becoming more comfortable with technology.
ISBN:
9781394245901
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
by Marietje Schaake · 2024
This book explores the profound impact of technology companies on democracy and offers solutions to reclaim democratic governance from corporate influence.
ISBN:
9780691241197
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
by Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor · 2024
Cuts through AI hype with rigorous analysis of which AI applications are genuinely effective versus those that are unreliable or misleading vital for informed decision-making.
ISBN:
9780691249148
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
The Quantified Worker
by Ifeoma Ajunwa · 2023
A legal and historical analysis of how the modern workplace has become deeply data-driven, with big data and artificial intelligence (AI) playing a central role in monitoring, measuring, and managing employees
ISBN:
9781316636954
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology
by Anu Bradford · 2023
A Columbia law professor maps the three competing models of tech regulation American, European, and Chinese and what each means for AI governance globally.
ISBN:
9780197802731
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us
by Gary F. Marcus · 2024
A prominent AI critic argues for concrete regulatory interventions and accountability structures to ensure AI development serves society rather than a narrow tech elite.
ISBN:
9780262551069
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
by Yuval Noah Harari · 2024
Harari traces how information networks from writing to algorithms shape civilizations, and what AI networks may mean for human cooperation and democracy.
ISBN:
9780593734230
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI
by Madhumita Murgia · 2024
A Financial Times journalist chronicles the human stories of people whose lives have been shaped — often invisibly — by algorithmic decision-making around the world.
ISBN:
9781250868480
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future
by Orly Lobel · 2024
Challenges purely pessimistic views of AI bias, arguing that technology if governed well can actively advance equality and human flourishing.
ISBN:
9781541774759
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
by Brian Merchant · 2023
The author intertwines a lucid examination of our current age with the story of the Luddites, showing how automation changed our world and is shaping our future.
ISBN:
9780316487740
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
by Christopher L. Hayes · 2025
In the information age, attention is scarce, while information is abundant, creating a structural crisis where platforms, advertisers, and media outlets compete to capture every spare moment of our mental bandwidth
ISBN:
9780593653135
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
by Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna · 2025
This book provides a long charge sheet of the prominent and less well-known harms of AI.
ISBN:
9780063418561
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip
by Stephen Witt · 2025
The definitive account of how Nvidia and the GPU became the engine of the AI revolution — essential context for understanding the infrastructure behind modern AI.
ISBN:
9780593832691
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains
by Max Bennett · 2023
This book describes the evolutionary journey that led to the human brain’s remarkable intelligence.
ISBN:
9780063286337
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
On Privacy and Technology
by Daniel J. Solove · 2024
A leading privacy law scholar offers an authoritative framework for understanding how technology reshapes privacy rights and what organizations must do in response.
ISBN:
9780197759561
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It
by Kashmir Hill · 2023
An investigative journalist exposes Clearview AI and the rise of facial recognition, revealing the profound privacy stakes of AI surveillance systems.
ISBN:
9780593448564
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
by Chris Miller · 2022
A Pulitzer finalist tracing the geopolitical battle for semiconductor supremacy foundational reading for understanding AI hardware dependencies and supply chain risks.
ISBN:
9781982172008
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can't Think the Way We Do
by Erik J. Larson · 2021
A Harvard computer scientist argues that genuine AI — machines that think like humans — is fundamentally impossible with current approaches, challenging the hype around deep learning and neural networks.
ISBN:
9780674983519
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
by Cathy O'Neil · 2016
A data scientist exposes how poorly designed algorithms embedded in hiring, lending, education, and criminal justice are amplifying inequality and undermining democracy — a foundational text in algorithmic accountability.
ISBN:
9780553418811
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Age of AI and Our Human Future
by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt & Daniel Huttenlocher · 2021
Three leading figures in diplomacy, technology, and academia examine how AI is transforming human cognition, geopolitics, and society — and what it means for the future of human agency.
ISBN:
9780316273800
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed
by Ray Kurzweil · 2012
Futurist Ray Kurzweil explores the pattern-recognition theory of the human neocortex and argues we can reverse-engineer the brain to build truly intelligent machines — a touchstone in AI research history.
ISBN:
9780670025299
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
Deep Learning
by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio & Aaron Courville · 2016
The definitive academic textbook on deep learning, covering the mathematical and conceptual foundations of neural networks. Essential reading for those wanting a rigorous technical grounding in modern AI.
ISBN:
9780262035613
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
by Karen Hao · 2025
An investigative account of OpenAI's rise its internal culture, power struggles, and the gap between its stated safety mission and its commercial ambitions. Essential for understanding the current AI landscape.
ISBN:
9780593657508
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
by James Barrat · 2013
One of the earliest mainstream warnings about the existential risks of superintelligent AI, drawing on interviews with leading researchers to argue that advanced AI may be the last invention humanity ever makes.
ISBN:
9780312622374
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
by Pedro Domingos · 2015
A University of Washington professor surveys the five major schools of machine learning and proposes they can be unified into a single 'Master Algorithm' — an accessible roadmap of the field's intellectual landscape.
ISBN:
9780465065707
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
by Ethan Mollick · 2024
A Wharton professor offers practical, research-backed guidance on how individuals and organizations can collaborate effectively with AI tools focused on what works today rather than speculative futures.
ISBN:
9780593185247
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
by Kai-Fu Lee · 2018
A former Google China president examines the US-China AI competition, arguing China's advantages in data and implementation will reshape the global economic and geopolitical order prescient and widely read.
ISBN:
9781328545640
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
by Nick Bostrom · 2014
Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom's landmark analysis of the long-term risks of superintelligent AI — the book that put AI existential risk on the mainstream agenda and influenced policy debates worldwide.
ISBN:
9780199678112
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Trust.: Responsible AI, Innovation, Privacy and Data Leadership
by Dominique Shelton Leipzig · 2023
A practical framework for executives on building trustworthy AI systems covering data governance, privacy accountability, and how to lead organizations through responsible innovation.
ISBN:
9781119985310
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State
by Michael Steinberger · 2025
A revealing portrait of Palantir CEO Alex Karp and the data analytics company that became a cornerstone of government surveillance — raising urgent questions about corporate power, civil liberties, and AI.
ISBN:
9781982196097
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
by Sarah Wynn-Williams · 2025
A former Meta policy executive delivers a damning insider account of how the social media giant prioritized growth and profit over societal harm essential context for AI governance and corporate accountability.
ISBN:
9781250391230
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
by Nita A. Farahany · 2023
A Duke law professor argues that brain-computer interfaces and neurotechnology create urgent new threats to cognitive liberty and mental privacy — a forward-looking legal and ethical framework.
ISBN:
9781250272959
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World
by Parmy Olson · 2024
A Bloomberg journalist's account of the fierce competition between Google DeepMind and OpenAI — the personalities, the breakthroughs, and the high-stakes race to build transformative AI.
ISBN:
9781250337740
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
by Eliezer Yudkowsky · 2025
The influential AI safety researcher makes a stark, uncompromising case that building superintelligent AI without solving the alignment problem would be catastrophic — a challenge to accelerationist assumptions.
ISBN:
9780316576079
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
by Cory Doctorow · 2025
Cory Doctorow coins 'enshittification' to describe how digital platforms degrade over time as they extract value from users and partners. Essential reading on the structural incentives shaping tech and AI platforms.
ISBN:
9780374619329
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
by Dan Wang · 2025
A technology analyst examines China's state-directed industrial strategy in semiconductors, AI, and advanced manufacturing — essential context for understanding the geopolitics of the global technology race.
ISBN:
9781324106036
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Reprogramming the American Dream: From Rural America to Silicon Valley Making AI Serve Us All
by Kevin Scott · 2020
Microsoft's CTO draws on his rural Appalachian upbringing to argue that AI must be designed to benefit all Americans, not just coastal tech elites a vision for inclusive AI development.
ISBN:
9780062879875
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values
by Brian Christian · 2020
A deep exploration of the alignment problem the challenge of building AI systems that reliably do what humans want. Combines technical depth with philosophical clarity and is essential for AI safety professionals.
ISBN:
9780393635829
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Not with a Bug, But with a Sticker: Attacks on Machine Learning Systems and What To Do About Them
by Ram Shankar Siva Kumar · 2023
A Microsoft engineer provides a practical technical guide to adversarial attacks on machine learning systems — essential cybersecurity reading for anyone deploying AI in enterprise environments.
ISBN:
9781119883975
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age
by Brad Smith & Carol Ann Browne · 2019
Microsoft's President examines the dual-use nature of technology — as both a tool for human progress and a weapon for harm — and argues for thoughtful corporate and government responsibility.
ISBN:
9781984877710
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
by Shoshana Zuboff · 2019
Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff's landmark work coins surveillance capitalism' to describe how tech companies extract behavioral data to predict and influence human behavior a defining framework.
ISBN:
9781610395694
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Algorithmic Leader: How to Be Smart When Machines Are Smarter Than You
by Mike Walsh · 2019
A practical guide for executives on how to lead effectively in an algorithm-driven world — covering decision-making, organizational design, and the leadership skills required in an AI-augmented workplace.
ISBN:
9781989025338
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
by Martha Wells · 2017
A science fiction novella about a part-human, part-robot security unit that just wants to watch TV and avoid interacting with humans. Widely beloved in tech circles for its thoughtful exploration of AI identity and autonomy.
ISBN:
9781664466845
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
by Jonathan Haidt · 2024
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that smartphones and social media have fundamentally rewired childhood, causing a global mental health crisis among young people with urgent implications for technology policy.
ISBN:
9780593655030
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld
by Jamie Bartlett · 2014
An investigative journalist takes readers inside the hidden corners of the internet from dark web markets to extremist communities exploring the complex tensions between privacy, freedom, and harm online.
ISBN:
9780434023158
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Privacy on the Ground: Driving Corporate Behavior in the United States and Europe
by Kenneth A. Bamberger, Deirdre K. Mulligan · 2015
This intensive five-nation study goes inside corporations to examine how the people charged with protecting privacy actually do their work, and what kinds of regulation effectively shape their behavior.
ISBN:
9780262029988
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
All
Governance
Ethics & Society
Technical & Research
Business & Future Of Work
Privacy & Security
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Agentic Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI Agents to Reinvent Business, Work and Life
by Pascal Bornet · 2024
A practical guide to AI agents and autonomous systems how organizations can harness agentic AI to transform operations, workflows, and business models.
ISBN:
B0F2GVNFTJ
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant
by Tae Kim · 2024
A compelling biography and business chronicle that tells the story of how Nvidia, once a struggling startup, became a global powerhouse in graphics and AI.
ISBN:
9781324086727
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI
by Neil D. Lawrence · 2024
A Cambridge professor explores what makes human intelligence irreplaceable and how AI forces us to rethink what it means to be human.
ISBN:
9780241625248
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means
by Christopher Summerfield · 2024
A cognitive neuroscientist at DeepMind explains how large language models work and what they reveal about intelligence, language, and the nature of mind.
ISBN:
9780593831717
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
How To Think About AI: A Guide For The Perplexed
by Richard Susskind · 2024
A clear-eyed, jargon-free guide for executives and professionals on how to think about AI's capabilities, limitations, and their implications for every field.
ISBN:
9780241693896
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond
by Daniel Susskind · 2020
An Oxford economist makes the case that AI and automation may genuinely reduce the need for human labor and explores what social and policy responses are needed.
ISBN:
9781399808576
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
by Max Tegmark · 2017
An MIT physicist's accessible exploration of the long-term implications of superintelligent AI for society, democracy, and human identity.
ISBN:
9781101970317
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Me, My Customer, and AI: The New Rules of Entrepreneurship
by Henrik Werdelin · 2024
A practical guide for entrepreneurs and business leaders on how to rethink customer relationships and business strategy in an AI-native world.
ISBN:
B0FCSQ1C7H
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Solutions That Deliver Business Result
From strategic planning to secure implementation, X-Centric helps organizations modernize across AI, cloud, cybersecurity, disaster recovery, mergers and acquisitions, and modern workplace solutions—built to drive measurable business outcomes at enterprise scale.
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
by Ruha Benjamin · 2019
Sociologist Ruha Benjamin examines how technologies encode and amplify racial discrimination required reading for responsible AI design.
ISBN:
9781509526406
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future
by Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan · 2021
Paired short stories and rigorous analysis from a leading AI researcher paint plausible scenarios of how AI will reshape societies across the globe over the next two decades.
ISBN:
9780593238295
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Guardrails: Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI
by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger · 2024
Argues that the key to safe AI isn't restriction but well-designed guardrails that guide human judgment a framework highly relevant to AI governance programs.
ISBN:
9780691257747
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
by Fei-Fei Li · 2023
A memoir and scientific account from the creator of ImageNet one of the most important stories of how modern AI was actually built, by a pioneer who shaped it.
ISBN:
9781250898104
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines
by Joy Buolamwini · 2023
The MIT researcher who exposed algorithmic bias in facial recognition recounts her fight for AI accountability a defining book in AI ethics.
ISBN:
9780593241837
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
by Mustafa Suleyman · 2023
From a DeepMind co-founder: how AI and synthetic biology are converging into a wave of technology that governments and organizations must urgently prepare to govern.
ISBN:
9780593593967
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
by Kate Crawford · 2021
A sweeping examination of the hidden environmental, labor, and political costs behind AI systems essential critical context for any AI governance professional.
ISBN:
9780300264630
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
All Hands on Tech: The AI-Powered Citizen Revolution
by Thomas H. Davenport · 2024
All Hands on Tech describes a revolution in work powered by technology becoming more human and humans becoming more comfortable with technology.
ISBN:
9781394245901
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley
by Marietje Schaake · 2024
This book explores the profound impact of technology companies on democracy and offers solutions to reclaim democratic governance from corporate influence.
ISBN:
9780691241197
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
by Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor · 2024
Cuts through AI hype with rigorous analysis of which AI applications are genuinely effective versus those that are unreliable or misleading vital for informed decision-making.
ISBN:
9780691249148
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
The Quantified Worker
by Ifeoma Ajunwa · 2023
A legal and historical analysis of how the modern workplace has become deeply data-driven, with big data and artificial intelligence (AI) playing a central role in monitoring, measuring, and managing employees
ISBN:
9781316636954
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology
by Anu Bradford · 2023
A Columbia law professor maps the three competing models of tech regulation American, European, and Chinese and what each means for AI governance globally.
ISBN:
9780197802731
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works for Us
by Gary F. Marcus · 2024
A prominent AI critic argues for concrete regulatory interventions and accountability structures to ensure AI development serves society rather than a narrow tech elite.
ISBN:
9780262551069
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
by Yuval Noah Harari · 2024
Harari traces how information networks from writing to algorithms shape civilizations, and what AI networks may mean for human cooperation and democracy.
ISBN:
9780593734230
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI
by Madhumita Murgia · 2024
A Financial Times journalist chronicles the human stories of people whose lives have been shaped — often invisibly — by algorithmic decision-making around the world.
ISBN:
9781250868480
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future
by Orly Lobel · 2024
Challenges purely pessimistic views of AI bias, arguing that technology if governed well can actively advance equality and human flourishing.
ISBN:
9781541774759
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech
by Brian Merchant · 2023
The author intertwines a lucid examination of our current age with the story of the Luddites, showing how automation changed our world and is shaping our future.
ISBN:
9780316487740
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
by Christopher L. Hayes · 2025
In the information age, attention is scarce, while information is abundant, creating a structural crisis where platforms, advertisers, and media outlets compete to capture every spare moment of our mental bandwidth
ISBN:
9780593653135
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
by Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna · 2025
This book provides a long charge sheet of the prominent and less well-known harms of AI.
ISBN:
9780063418561
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip
by Stephen Witt · 2025
The definitive account of how Nvidia and the GPU became the engine of the AI revolution — essential context for understanding the infrastructure behind modern AI.
ISBN:
9780593832691
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains
by Max Bennett · 2023
This book describes the evolutionary journey that led to the human brain’s remarkable intelligence.
ISBN:
9780063286337
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
On Privacy and Technology
by Daniel J. Solove · 2024
A leading privacy law scholar offers an authoritative framework for understanding how technology reshapes privacy rights and what organizations must do in response.
ISBN:
9780197759561
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It
by Kashmir Hill · 2023
An investigative journalist exposes Clearview AI and the rise of facial recognition, revealing the profound privacy stakes of AI surveillance systems.
ISBN:
9780593448564
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
by Chris Miller · 2022
A Pulitzer finalist tracing the geopolitical battle for semiconductor supremacy foundational reading for understanding AI hardware dependencies and supply chain risks.
ISBN:
9781982172008
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can't Think the Way We Do
by Erik J. Larson · 2021
A Harvard computer scientist argues that genuine AI — machines that think like humans — is fundamentally impossible with current approaches, challenging the hype around deep learning and neural networks.
ISBN:
9780674983519
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
by Cathy O'Neil · 2016
A data scientist exposes how poorly designed algorithms embedded in hiring, lending, education, and criminal justice are amplifying inequality and undermining democracy — a foundational text in algorithmic accountability.
ISBN:
9780553418811
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Age of AI and Our Human Future
by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt & Daniel Huttenlocher · 2021
Three leading figures in diplomacy, technology, and academia examine how AI is transforming human cognition, geopolitics, and society — and what it means for the future of human agency.
ISBN:
9780316273800
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed
by Ray Kurzweil · 2012
Futurist Ray Kurzweil explores the pattern-recognition theory of the human neocortex and argues we can reverse-engineer the brain to build truly intelligent machines — a touchstone in AI research history.
ISBN:
9780670025299
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
Deep Learning
by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio & Aaron Courville · 2016
The definitive academic textbook on deep learning, covering the mathematical and conceptual foundations of neural networks. Essential reading for those wanting a rigorous technical grounding in modern AI.
ISBN:
9780262035613
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
by Karen Hao · 2025
An investigative account of OpenAI's rise its internal culture, power struggles, and the gap between its stated safety mission and its commercial ambitions. Essential for understanding the current AI landscape.
ISBN:
9780593657508
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era
by James Barrat · 2013
One of the earliest mainstream warnings about the existential risks of superintelligent AI, drawing on interviews with leading researchers to argue that advanced AI may be the last invention humanity ever makes.
ISBN:
9780312622374
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Technical & Research
The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
by Pedro Domingos · 2015
A University of Washington professor surveys the five major schools of machine learning and proposes they can be unified into a single 'Master Algorithm' — an accessible roadmap of the field's intellectual landscape.
ISBN:
9780465065707
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI
by Ethan Mollick · 2024
A Wharton professor offers practical, research-backed guidance on how individuals and organizations can collaborate effectively with AI tools focused on what works today rather than speculative futures.
ISBN:
9780593185247
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
by Kai-Fu Lee · 2018
A former Google China president examines the US-China AI competition, arguing China's advantages in data and implementation will reshape the global economic and geopolitical order prescient and widely read.
ISBN:
9781328545640
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
by Nick Bostrom · 2014
Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom's landmark analysis of the long-term risks of superintelligent AI — the book that put AI existential risk on the mainstream agenda and influenced policy debates worldwide.
ISBN:
9780199678112
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Trust.: Responsible AI, Innovation, Privacy and Data Leadership
by Dominique Shelton Leipzig · 2023
A practical framework for executives on building trustworthy AI systems covering data governance, privacy accountability, and how to lead organizations through responsible innovation.
ISBN:
9781119985310
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Philosopher in the Valley: Alex Karp, Palantir and the Rise of the Surveillance State
by Michael Steinberger · 2025
A revealing portrait of Palantir CEO Alex Karp and the data analytics company that became a cornerstone of government surveillance — raising urgent questions about corporate power, civil liberties, and AI.
ISBN:
9781982196097
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
by Sarah Wynn-Williams · 2025
A former Meta policy executive delivers a damning insider account of how the social media giant prioritized growth and profit over societal harm essential context for AI governance and corporate accountability.
ISBN:
9781250391230
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology
by Nita A. Farahany · 2023
A Duke law professor argues that brain-computer interfaces and neurotechnology create urgent new threats to cognitive liberty and mental privacy — a forward-looking legal and ethical framework.
ISBN:
9781250272959
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race That Will Change the World
by Parmy Olson · 2024
A Bloomberg journalist's account of the fierce competition between Google DeepMind and OpenAI — the personalities, the breakthroughs, and the high-stakes race to build transformative AI.
ISBN:
9781250337740
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
by Eliezer Yudkowsky · 2025
The influential AI safety researcher makes a stark, uncompromising case that building superintelligent AI without solving the alignment problem would be catastrophic — a challenge to accelerationist assumptions.
ISBN:
9780316576079
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It
by Cory Doctorow · 2025
Cory Doctorow coins 'enshittification' to describe how digital platforms degrade over time as they extract value from users and partners. Essential reading on the structural incentives shaping tech and AI platforms.
ISBN:
9780374619329
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future
by Dan Wang · 2025
A technology analyst examines China's state-directed industrial strategy in semiconductors, AI, and advanced manufacturing — essential context for understanding the geopolitics of the global technology race.
ISBN:
9781324106036
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Business & Future of Work
Reprogramming the American Dream: From Rural America to Silicon Valley Making AI Serve Us All
by Kevin Scott · 2020
Microsoft's CTO draws on his rural Appalachian upbringing to argue that AI must be designed to benefit all Americans, not just coastal tech elites a vision for inclusive AI development.
ISBN:
9780062879875
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values
by Brian Christian · 2020
A deep exploration of the alignment problem the challenge of building AI systems that reliably do what humans want. Combines technical depth with philosophical clarity and is essential for AI safety professionals.
ISBN:
9780393635829
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
Not with a Bug, But with a Sticker: Attacks on Machine Learning Systems and What To Do About Them
by Ram Shankar Siva Kumar · 2023
A Microsoft engineer provides a practical technical guide to adversarial attacks on machine learning systems — essential cybersecurity reading for anyone deploying AI in enterprise environments.
ISBN:
9781119883975
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age
by Brad Smith & Carol Ann Browne · 2019
Microsoft's President examines the dual-use nature of technology — as both a tool for human progress and a weapon for harm — and argues for thoughtful corporate and government responsibility.
ISBN:
9781984877710
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power
by Shoshana Zuboff · 2019
Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff's landmark work coins surveillance capitalism' to describe how tech companies extract behavioral data to predict and influence human behavior a defining framework.
ISBN:
9781610395694
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Governance
The Algorithmic Leader: How to Be Smart When Machines Are Smarter Than You
by Mike Walsh · 2019
A practical guide for executives on how to lead effectively in an algorithm-driven world — covering decision-making, organizational design, and the leadership skills required in an AI-augmented workplace.
ISBN:
9781989025338
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
by Martha Wells · 2017
A science fiction novella about a part-human, part-robot security unit that just wants to watch TV and avoid interacting with humans. Widely beloved in tech circles for its thoughtful exploration of AI identity and autonomy.
ISBN:
9781664466845
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
by Jonathan Haidt · 2024
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that smartphones and social media have fundamentally rewired childhood, causing a global mental health crisis among young people with urgent implications for technology policy.
ISBN:
9780593655030
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Privacy & Security
The Dark Net: Inside the Digital Underworld
by Jamie Bartlett · 2014
An investigative journalist takes readers inside the hidden corners of the internet from dark web markets to extremist communities exploring the complex tensions between privacy, freedom, and harm online.
ISBN:
9780434023158
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Artificial Intelligence
Ethics & Society
Privacy on the Ground: Driving Corporate Behavior in the United States and Europe
by Kenneth A. Bamberger, Deirdre K. Mulligan · 2015
This intensive five-nation study goes inside corporations to examine how the people charged with protecting privacy actually do their work, and what kinds of regulation effectively shape their behavior.
ISBN:
9780262029988
Recommended by
Kelli Tarala
Reading Recommendations
From Our Experts
Reading Recommendations
From Our Experts
Reading Recommendations
From Our Experts
Senior consultants and thought leaders who shape X-Centric's knowledge practice.
Senior consultants and thought leaders who shape X-Centric's knowledge practice.
Nasir Khan
President & CEO
Nasir leads X-Centric's emerging AI practice with a focus on enterprise-scale agentic deployments, responsible AI governance, and measurable ROI modeling. He speaks regularly at industry events on practical AI adoption for mid-market and enterprise organizations.
18 Recommendations
Justin Knash
Chief Technology Officer
Justin specializes in Microsoft 365 ecosystems, Teams-centric workflow transformation, and hybrid cloud architecture. With over a decade at the intersection of productivity and infrastructure, his reading list skews toward human-centered technology adoption.
14 Recommendations
Kelli Tarala
Principal Consultant – GRC
Kelli brings deep expertise in security governance, risk, and compliance — with particular focus on NIST frameworks, CIS Controls, and AI-era regulatory alignment. She's a frequent workshop facilitator and the architect of X-Centric's DefenseIQ AI practice.
16 Recommendations
Reading is the beginning. Execution is the work.
The frameworks in these books come to life when you have an experienced partner to apply them. Let's talk about what your organization actually needs to move forward.
Reading is the beginning. Execution is the work.
The frameworks in these books come to life when you have an experienced partner to apply them. Let's talk about what your organization actually needs to move forward.
Reading is the beginning. Execution is the work.
The frameworks in these books come to life when you have an experienced partner to apply them. Let's talk about what your organization actually needs to move forward.
© 2026 X-Centric IT Solutions. All Rights Reserved
© 2026 X-Centric IT Solutions. All Rights Reserved
© 2026 X-Centric IT Solutions. All Rights Reserved
