Reading guide
Books and practical courses on artificial intelligence, human–machine collaboration, and the technology shaping business and society.
Explore the books together, then put the ideas into practice with the courses below. The list connects AI with the infrastructure, governance, and strategic questions surrounding it.
Explore the full list in one place.
DeepMind’s place in AI competition offers context for the rest of this reading path. From the questions about innovation here, move to practical collaboration in Co-Intelligence and governance in The Coming Wave.
Explore this book →Understanding AI is one thing; deciding how to work with it is another. Mollick provides the practical part of this reading path, between an introduction to the field and the broader questions of governance in The Coming Wave.
Explore this book →The governance questions deserve a place beside the practical AI books. Suleyman’s account connects powerful capabilities with the difficulty of controlling their consequences, making responsibility central to the discussion.
Explore this book →If you’ve wondered why semiconductors keep appearing in national-security discussions, start here. Miller makes a book about microchips surprisingly readable and explains their outsized role in diplomacy, defense, and economics.
Explore this book →This is one of the clearest and most unsettling books I’ve read on surveillance in the United States. Tau’s reporting raises serious questions about who controls our data. Pair it with Chip War: influence depends on information as well as infrastructure.
Explore this book →Why does politics feel louder, and consensus harder to reach? Fisher’s reporting on algorithms and amplified outrage helps make sense of that change. The concern here is our ability to understand what is real, not simply the technology on our screens.
Explore this book →Accountability is what matters most to me in this book. The people designing powerful technologies also bear responsibility for how they are used. Smith and Browne bring that question inside the companies making those decisions.
Explore this book →Brose moves from criticism to a call for urgency and innovation. That is what I value here: a connection between emerging digital technologies and the practical demands of national defense, including the institutions that must adapt.
Explore this book →Apple’s commercial success and its geopolitical vulnerabilities are bound together in this account. I appreciate McGee’s attention to that dependence and what it means for trade, labor, and national security, without reducing the relationship to a simple argument for or against either country.
Explore this book →Set this beside Nuclear War to compare two forms of catastrophic risk. The biological scenario broadens the national-security discussion and the questions we should ask about emerging threats.
Explore this book →Technology and political instability meet in 2054. It carries the discussion beyond 2034 and provides the next step toward 2084, with a different set of questions about power and uncertainty.
Explore this book →Before deciding where AI belongs in your work, examine the claims being made for it. AI Snake Oil is a useful counterweight to read alongside Co-Intelligence.
Explore this book →Objectives, incentives, bias, and human judgment sit behind practical decisions about AI. The Alignment Problem connects everyday use with those deeper questions.
Explore this book →AI depends on infrastructure and human work that discussions of capability can leave out. Atlas of AI makes that background visible.
Explore this book →From reading to practice
These courses offer practical ways to understand AI and use it thoughtfully. Start with the fundamentals, explore tools that fit your work, and build the judgment to evaluate their results. Each recommendation explains who it suits and what you can expect to learn.
DeepLearning.AI · Andrew Ng
Beginner · No coding required
A starting point for understanding AI, recognizing business opportunities, and asking better questions about an AI project.
Pairs with The Infinity Machine for readers who want the basic vocabulary behind the story.
Coursera; check current enrollment and certificate options.
View course AI for Everyone — Opens in a new windowDeepLearning.AI · Andrew Ng
Beginner · No coding required
Understand generative AI, practice prompting, and explore its applications and limits at work.
A useful companion to Co-Intelligence before experimenting with AI in your own workflow.
Coursera; check current enrollment and certificate options.
View course Generative AI for Everyone — Opens in a new windowGoogle · Coursera
Beginner · Practical workplace projects
Apply AI to brainstorming, planning, research, writing, content creation, data analysis, and building tools.
Choose this for a structured progression from learning concepts to producing work you can evaluate.
Subscription program; see provider for current pricing.
View course Google AI Professional Certificate — Opens in a new windowAnthropic
Beginner · Everyday AI work
Learn the basics of working with Claude, improving responses, organizing projects, and using connected tools.
A practical starting point for readers who want to try the collaboration ideas in Co-Intelligence.
Free course; some product features may require paid access.
View course Claude 101 — Opens in a new windowAnthropic · PayPal
Business owners and teams
Use the 4D framework to choose suitable tasks, supply useful context, review outputs, and establish responsible business workflows.
Turns broad AI strategy into practical decisions for a small team.
Free course. Framework & Foundations is recommended preparation.
View course AI Fluency for Small Businesses — Opens in a new windowAnthropic
Practical · Files and multi-step work
Practice delegating work with files and projects, using skills and plugins, and steering longer tasks while checking the results.
A next step after basic chat skills for people building repeatable work processes.
Free course; access to Cowork may require a paid plan.
View course Introduction to Claude Cowork — Opens in a new windowAnthropic
Technical · Code editor and command-line familiarity
Learn to plan, build, debug, and review software with a coding agent, while managing context and permissions.
For readers ready to move from using AI tools to developing software with them.
Free course; a supported Claude plan or API access is required for practice.
View course Claude Code 101 — Opens in a new windowAnthropic
Beginner · Human–AI collaboration
Build a repeatable approach to delegation, description, discernment, and diligence when working with AI.
Recommended preparation for the small-business course and a useful bridge from Co-Intelligence to everyday practice.
Free course.
View course AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations — Opens in a new windowAnthropic
Beginner · No technical background required
Develop a working understanding of why generative AI behaves inconsistently and how to recognize and respond to its limits.
Complements Framework & Foundations and the questions about judgment raised by The Coming Wave.
Free course.
View course AI Capabilities and Limitations — Opens in a new windowDeepLearning.AI · Stanford Online
Technical · Basic programming and high-school math
Study supervised and unsupervised learning with Python exercises, including model evaluation and practical applications.
A deeper technical option for readers who want to understand how models are built and assessed.
Coursera; check current enrollment and certificate options.
View course Machine Learning Specialization — Opens in a new windowCourses are offered by their respective providers. Follow the course link for current availability, pricing, certificate details, and tool requirements. Course enrollment is separate from any AI product subscription.
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