Revealing the unfolding story of Artificial Intelligence, Richard Susskind presents a short non-technical guide that challenges us to think differently about AI. Susskind brings AI out of computing laboratories, big tech companies, and start-ups - and into everyday life.
In recent years, and certainly since the launch of ChatGPT, there has been massive public and professional interest in Artificial Intelligence. But people are confused about what AI is, what it can and cannot do, what is yet to come, and whether AI is good or bad for humanity and civilisation - whether it will provide solutions to mankinds major challenges or become our gravest existential threat. There is also confusion about how we should regulate AI and where we should draw moral boundaries on its use.
In How To Think About AI, Richard Susskind draws on his experience of working on AI since the early 1980s. For Susskind, balancing the benefits and threats of artificial intelligence is the defining challenge of our age. He explores the history of AI and possible scenarios for its future. His views on AI are not always conventional. He positions ChatGPT and generative AI as no more than the latest chapter in the ongoing story of AI and claims we are still at the foothills of developments. He argues that to think responsibly about the impact of AI requires us to look well beyond todays technologies, suggesting that not-yet-invented technologies will have far greater impact on us in the 2030s than the tools we have today. This leads Susskind to discuss the possibility of conscious machines, magnificent new AI-enabled virtual worlds, and the impact of AI on the evolution of biological humans.
Richard Susskind is a British lawyer and writer specialized in legal technology, thinking and writing about the interface between artificial intelligence and society since the 1980s. His 2025 book How to Think About AI focuses on how he views our current post-GenAI era with a mix of open-minded enthusiasm and prudent vigilance. With the advent of ChatGPT and similar publicly-available free and paid tools, there are of course dozens of books being published on this topic every month in 2025 from a variety of angles. I do think Susskind's contribution is worth reading for its balanced, circumspect commentary based on the author's decades of exploration of this topic.
This thoughtful and incisive book provokes us to think beyond our usual lives to how we can perhaps determine the impact AI will have on us as individuals and on humanity as a whole.
What is clear is we need to reexamine how we look at AI and how we build and manage our expectations of what AI can, should and will do.
A critically important book for anyone who cares about the future.
2.5 problem is that these books quickly become dated, if not obsolete. organized in five major parts: (1) Understanding AI; (2) Thinking Differently; (3) Making AI Work; (4) Confronting Risks; (5) Contemplating the Future.
1. Process-thinkers (those preoccupied with how AI works (algorithms, architectures, mechanisms) v Outcome-thinkers (those more concerned with what AI does — its effects, consequences, uses etc. He warns that process-thinkers can become overly fixated on regulating today’s techniques, rather than anticipating what’s coming next. So shift your attention (or at least balance) toward outcome-thinking — to think about how AI can reshape institutions, economies, ethical norms, human roles.
2. What we are seeing is early, primitive versions relative to what is possible in coming decades. So again, always ask: “What might come next?” to guard against being blindsided.
3 The tendency many professionals have to believe that AI will affect others but not their own field. (Lawyers, doctors, etc., often assume their domain is immune.) This mindset blinds people to potential disruption. He suggests professionals should instead ask: “What if AI built alternatives that are faster, cheaper, more trusted than the services we offer?” As lawyer, author delves more deeply into legal domain, biggest gains may lie not in automating existing tasks (e.g. document review), but in restructuring systems — creating new ways of resolving disputes, preventing problems before they arise, or even bypassing traditional litigation.
4. AI’s perils. Ie Dual-use risks: the same technology might be used for beneficial ends (e.g. climate modeling) or malicious ones (e.g. surveillance, misinformation, weaponization). • Power concentration and inequality: if AI capabilities become concentrated among a few entities (governments, big tech), large swaths of society may lack influence over their development. • Loss of human autonomy: as AI systems take over decision-making, we must guard against erosion of judgment, responsibility, and control. • Transparency, accountability, and trust: Who is responsible when AI systems err? How do we audit or regulate them? How do we maintain trust when systems are opaque? • Misalignment and “value drift”: as systems evolve, they may deviate from human intentions or values.
emphasis that these challenges cannot be addressed purely technically — regulation, institutions, professional norms, and public engagement are necessary.
5. Futures, consciousness, and human evolution
Book ends with speculation on conscious machines, or machines with forms of agency more like ours than current ones and envisions immersive AI-enabled virtual worlds (metaverse-type environments), where human and AI agents cohabit and interact. Also speculates on how biological humans might co-evolve with AI, possibly blending with, being augmented by, or being outpaced by intelligence that is not biological.
Richard Susskind the author of ‘How to Think about AI’ describes this as the defining challenge of our age.
This book subtitled ‘A Guide for the Perplexed’ is excellent. A short readable book, doesn’t dive into the underlying tech but concentrates on what it can and could do and how we should respond. The negatives: I find it biased towards the good that AI may bring and has too little on the risks and damage it will bring. And assumes that AI can and will only operate within the current new liberalist society.
But if you are working in any of the professions or creative industries this book is essential reading.
My takeaways from the book:
🤖‘Not us thinking’ is everywhere. Every profession sees AI as having greater scope in other disciplines than their own
🤖We forget at our peril that ‘the competition that kills you will not look like you’
🤖The professions greatest threat may come from AI empowered clients and organisations that can do much for themselves without needing to refer out
🤖Any role or work that is of itself ‘not intrinsically valuable’ is vulnerable to AI
🤖We don’t care about the process only the outcome. We don’t want surgeons, we want to be healthy. We don’t want a lawyer arguing our case in court, we want justice.
🤖AI has started by taking over our current roles and doing them faster, more accurately and cheaper. But AI will then find a better way of achieving the same outcome (innovation) and eventually could remove the problem at source (elimination) meaning no need for the role at all.
🤖We already don’t understand how our most advanced AI systems actually work! Terrifying.
🤖If our only question about AI is ‘what jobs will be left to our children’ we are missing the point. Everything is going to change.
The book’s conclusion is that the AI genie is only ‘half out of the bottle’. That we have a decade to come up with an international regulatory framework that will ‘contain our systems ….to prevent a digital merger or takevoer’. Again terrifying.
I don’t want to leave decisions about what society will look like to the tech billionaires and the politicians in their pockets.
Reading this book will help us take part in the debate.
Richard Susskind has written the definitive guide for anyone—leader, strategist, or citizen—trying to make sense of artificial intelligence. How to Think About AI is not another technical manual or a breathless account of the latest chatbot. It is a masterfully clear, deeply insightful, and ultimately profound exploration of the questions we should all be asking about the most consequential technology of our age.
Susskind's greatest strength is his ability to cut through the noise. He brilliantly dismantles the flawed, human-centric ways we typically think about AI, introducing concepts like the "AI Fallacy" (the mistaken belief that AI must copy human thought) and distinguishing between "process-thinking" (how it works) and "outcome-thinking" (what it does). This framing alone is worth the price of admission, as it clarifies so much of the confused public debate.
He then pushes the conversation far beyond the usual talking points of job automation and ethics, forcing the reader to confront the truly transformative potential of AI:
- Innovation and Elimination: The real disruption won't come from automating old tasks, but from innovating entirely new ways of working and eliminating the problems that required those tasks in the first place. - The Inevitability of AGI: He makes a compelling case that we should be planning for Artificial General Intelligence—machines that can rival human intellect in almost all domains—not in some distant future, but within the next decade. - The Cosmic Gamble:The final section is a philosophical tour de force, examining machine consciousness and the "AI Evolution Hypothesis"—the idea that we may be birthing our own successors.
What makes this book so powerful is that it is both pragmatic and philosophical. Susskind provides a clear-eyed framework for leaders navigating the immediate challenges of AI while simultaneously elevating the discussion to the highest possible stakes: the future of humanity itself. This is not a book about technology; it's a book about us. An essential, and frankly, terrifying read.
Richard Suskin, I recommend, recognize that name, But not in a historical lens. From the AI perspective in field, Which Makes me curious because he's speaking. Like he's spending. If he feels for a very long time, Magic artificial intelligence is relatively new field. It's only been around for seven pounds 70 years And the retail application commercial application of that has been much smaller window, I believe. And it has changed dramatically since then, but that's the thing. We're always referring to AI as llms. It's, like, no AI, are not a new thing. Guys, we've been around for so long. We use them all the time and back in propagations, Python scripts, the software that we use. It's all AI you. Do you have a thermostat of smart thermostat? That's AI, Uh, there are so many machines that automate and regulate things around us all the times, like an outlet timer. For freak's sake. I mean pharmacological interventions, things that are artificial to change us even with from within. And that's one thing that actually made me think about The fact that if you don't want to be synthetic, then you shouldn't take medications because they do have Permanent alterations on your body Because they do At least partly integrate frequently. So, Yeah, functionally. A biological cyborg. We essentially all are Kick vaccines. That's the kind of shit that we're talking about here, too. It's just not the gross wet, where stuff that's like metal and wires and Plastics throughout us. But I mean, Hey, I specifically Are just artificial intelligence automated programs that we can run. I love it. The thing is like a psychologist that, I know, even had thought that it was automated intelligence And not artificial intelligence. And like, wonderful, yes, that's a great way to look at it. So, this book largely covers a moral framework, Which is just fine. I didn't really learn anything new here. However, It was A nice take.
A useful and illuminating guide to AI, pitched at an accessible level for most general readers, which suits me down to the ground. As AI's tentacles begin to weave their way ever deeper into life, it's harder for even those on the luddite end of the scale to ignore it, in work and personal life. I have to assess various AI tools and apps, for possible assistance in work and I'm barely someone you'd consider tech savvy. It's coming and it's not going away. Noting the truism that many of these new apps and features are "the worst they're ever going to be" is a good way to remind readers not to judge on the present capabilities alone.
Susskind guides the reader through the current landscape but with a firm eye on the present, and invites multiple perspectives on the opportunities and threats to our normative practices that are going to come, whether we like it or not. Which makes it all the more valuable to think about the possible more dramatic consequences now, so as to be prepared and to give governments, and citiziaens and businesses time to decide what they want from this technology.
It's a quick and breezy read, designed mostly to prompt ways of thnking rather than a technical examination of the nitty gritty. Those already familiar with it, may not find much new here, but it is still instructive and a useful call to arms to think about all the possibilities now.
The 1st half had some interesting sections but 2nd half legal bits and it's complicated not useful to me. I do agree with him that many folks think or hope it won't impact their profession. A good bit on trying to understand AI like it's a human. I don't understand it, it doesn't work like I do, humans have some special sauce when we mostly don't understand how the brain works either. When as long as it works it doesn't not have to work like a human or "It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it hunts". Recently read where google is trying to understand how it works on a simple thing like adding two numbers. AI did 4 queries including two estimates to get the answer or to be clear did not work like a child would be taught at all but got the right answer! It's all over sports fans that AI will be a huge thing where we either add it as a brain extension or we give up even trying. Try ChatGPT 4.0 for a couple weeks having a dialogue about any complicated thing to see that it is better than trying to find someone that 'knows' more or may not with 5.0 etc coming. To quote ChatGPT BATAR Better Athan The Available Right-now
You name it in 5 years everyone will be using AI to save $, time because it is BATAR. We used to tease you have been amazoned but soon it will be you have been machined.
For those that know Richard Susskind's previous works on the future of the law and lawyers, you will not be disappointed since this book has a similar personal tone and call to action to be a part of the discourse. I'd like a bit more details in many areas of the book but I appreciate the brevity and not getting into the technical aspects of AI which you can decide (not) to read elsewhere. He has done the hard work of plowing through the many books on the subject of where AI is heading. He justifies his predictions that AI progress will continue unabated and we need to at least plan for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) already between 2030-2035 by engaging with cross functional experts to have a public debate about what future we want which I wholeheartedly agree with! (I was lucky enough to be at the European launch of the book before its release)
I was awed by what Susskind writes about AI. His discussion of the evolution of AI--slow and piecemeal at first; lightening fast immediately prior to and since the launch of ChatGPT, was very informative and enlightening. However, I was confused and perplexed when his discussion went beyond what I envision as the limits of AI; that is, what I personally can envision AI capable of performing. Should AI's capacity ultimately transcend the abilities of humanity's "best and brightest" (as it already has against single individuals deemed the very best, i.e., against the world's best chess master), what is to stop AI from then establishing its own detrimental goals and succeeding in achieving those goals? This is but one of many perplexing and frankly scary issues that Susskind posits. An important read for any of us perplexed by AI. And who, other than AI gurus, isn't?
The book is completely non-technical and offers very few components about the core of ai.. I liked how Richard Susskind constantly stayed on the border about AI’s boon and bane, like most people! I don’t find the book eye opening but it’s a good read and I did have moments that slightly changed the way I thought about ai in some way.. like the way they explained about stages of ai improvement and its gradual yet unavoidable impact on society (I mean our near future) And this book surely kinda insists me to learn and be in touch with the changing technology era and it kinda scared me that we’d be left behind as boomers if we don’t catch up with its pace!
Melhor livro dos últimos tempos! O livro traz uma reflexão sobre como estamos lidando mal com o tema da IA , deixando a discussão somente na mão dos técnicos e das empresas de tecnologia, quando, na realidade, o assunto deveria estar sendo discutido pelas mentes mais brilhantes, os filósofos. Traz vários cenários de futuro e tudo isso com uma linguagem acessível que mescla tecnologia, direito e filosofia. Ele está sempre citando os melhores filósofos , tanto antigos como contemporâneos, para mostrar que a questão da IA vai muito além do que muitos podem imaginar.
Susskind is among the best and most qualified to write about AI for laypeople, and should be read by the experts too. Most useful for me was the focus of the discussion on outcome (what can it do) over process (how does it work). I recently attended a conference on AI and GenZ, and the result of the conversation is always about what it means to be human, what are the skills we need to stay human, and how do we leverage AI whilst also reigning it in. This book is a superb aid in this journey of how to think about it. I hope it’s not too late to act.
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"But one of the joys of AI is that it prompts deeper consideration of the human condition, of reality and our perception of reality..."
Susskind gives a good primer for a general audience to engage with "AI," and I loved the clustering of people's beliefs into general groups, but I wish stronger due diligence given to the possibilities of correctness for really any one of these scenarios. I think unknown unknowns are too numerous, and that there is a good amount of handwaving unexplained.
Fascinating look at AI, our history with new revolutionary inventions, how it will be used, ethical considerations, and future possibilities. It’s not a book of answers. Instead, it is thought provoking.
Excellent book, even if the only thing you'll get from it is the framework for thinking about AI that distinguishes between process oriented from effect oriented approach.