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What If We Got AI Right?
'Timely and much-needed' Carole Cadwalladr
'A wise and purpose-driven book to steer us out of AI doom' Sandi Toksvig
We're confused about AI: what it is, and where it's leading us - whether into a utopia or an apocalypse. Yet these obsessions thwart efforts to make meaningful change in an industry with very real problems.
Here, Dr Eleanor Drage, one of the world's leading AI ethicists, unpicks the culture and ideas that drive the AI arms race, from billionaires trying to cheat death to biased police algorithms and state capture by big tech.
We need new language and new ideas to re-determine what AI is for and how we should use it. Only by bringing feminism, reparative justice and climate politics into the debate can we create a better future with machines.
'A wise and purpose-driven book to steer us out of AI doom' Sandi Toksvig
We're confused about AI: what it is, and where it's leading us - whether into a utopia or an apocalypse. Yet these obsessions thwart efforts to make meaningful change in an industry with very real problems.
Here, Dr Eleanor Drage, one of the world's leading AI ethicists, unpicks the culture and ideas that drive the AI arms race, from billionaires trying to cheat death to biased police algorithms and state capture by big tech.
We need new language and new ideas to re-determine what AI is for and how we should use it. Only by bringing feminism, reparative justice and climate politics into the debate can we create a better future with machines.
- GenresNonfiction
282 pages, Paperback
Published July 16, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 17, 2026
I didn't expect to pick up a work of non-fiction and feel like I was stepping into something as tense and gripping as a sci-fi thriller, while also being as grounding, sobering and unsettling as this. But I suppose that's the world we live in now.
In What If We Got AI Right?, Dr Eleanor Drage delivers a fearless and deeply human look at how we might actually live with AI, and how we might work with it, rather than simply be swept along by it. What struck me most is how she refuses both extremes. The glossy utopian promises of Big Tech and the equally unhelpful doom-laden apocalypse narratives are both set aside. Instead, she sits in the uncomfortable middle ground and asks us to pay attention. To slow down. To think.
She writes, “The reality is that progress is hard, incremental work: there is no silver-bullet solution,” and that idea lingers throughout the book. It steadily dismantles the idea that AI will suddenly “fix” everything. If anything, Drage shows how those promises can mask something far more extractive and unequal beneath the surface.
And that’s where this book really hit home for me. Drage doesn’t just talk about technology and systems, she talks about people. The hidden labour. The environmental cost. The uncomfortable truths we’d often rather scroll past. One line in particular stayed with me: “The promise of prosperity is merely a way to justify the creation of increasingly costly and exploitative AI systems.” It reframes so much of the current conversation in a way that feels difficult to unsee once you’ve read it.
I’ve read a few books circling this space recently, from fiction like Moderation to non-fiction like Code Dependent, and I think What If We Got AI Right? sits alongside them in an important way. Where those books explore different aspects of our relationship with AI, Drage turns her attention to the wider systems, structures and power behind it. There’s a ‘down-to-earthness’ to her writing that cuts through the noise, a ‘groundedness’ that makes even the most complex ideas feel accessible. She isn’t simply theorising about some distant future. She is drawing attention to the consequences of systems that are already here, and to the people who are already living with them.
What I also appreciated is how she challenges the language we use around AI. The idea that there even is a single “AI industry”, for example, is something she dismantles with ease: “There is no longer an ‘AI industry’, as AI is integrated into almost every industry.” It’s a reminder that this isn’t some distant, abstract force. AI is already woven into the very fabric of our everyday lives, often in ways we barely notice.
There’s also a fascinating thread running through the book about what it means to be human in the first place. Drage leans into the idea that technology isn’t separate from us, but part of us, and that the boundary has always been blurred. Her exploration of this, from medical interventions to social systems, leads to a simple but profound shift: “There is no nature versus technology. Those two things have been bound together since the beginning.”
It’s the kind of idea that reshapes how you think about everything else in the book. We are not fixed, purely organic beings standing outside technology. We are already shaped by the tools, systems, medicines, infrastructures and technologies that make our lives possible. The question, then, is not whether technology is somehow separate from humanity, but what kinds of futures we are building, and who gets to decide what those futures look like.
At the same time, Drage doesn’t shy away from calling out power. Whether it’s the concentration of wealth, the silencing of ethics teams within major tech companies, or the way fear is often manufactured to justify surveillance, there’s a clear-eyed honesty here.
Her discussion of AI in policing and protest surveillance is particularly chilling, not because it feels speculative, but because it doesn’t. The book looks at the use of AI systems to monitor protests, the lack of transparency surrounding their deployment, and the disproportionate risks faced by Black and Brown communities. This is not some distant dystopian possibility. You don’t have to look too far to see that these systems are already shaping how people are watched, classified and treated.
And yet, despite all of this, the book never tips into hopelessness. If anything, it feels oddly reassuring. Drage keeps returning to the idea that things could be different, not because AI will somehow save us, but because the systems we build are shaped by human decisions, and human decisions can be challenged.
There’s a moment where she draws on the Greek concept of pharmakon, something that can be both poison and cure, and it feels like the perfect lens for the entire book. AI is not inherently one thing or the other. It can become a tool of exploitation, surveillance and inequality, or it can be shaped towards something more equitable. The important question is not simply what AI can do, but who is shaping it, who benefits from it, and who is asked to bear the cost.
This is one of those rare non-fiction reads that I know I’ll keep coming back to. I’ve already found myself rereading sections, sitting with certain passages a little longer, and noticing how often it drifts back into my thoughts during the day. It has more than a earned spot on my bedside table for the foreseeable future.
If you’re even slightly curious, or concerned, about AI, I’d really urge you to pick this up. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t sensationalise. It simply exposes the realities of what is already happening, asks better questions, and in doing so offers something far more valuable: a way to think about AI that feels grounded, ethical and genuinely human.
Dr Eleanor Drage makes a compelling case that a better future with AI isn’t just possible, it’s still within reach, if we’re willing to rethink who it’s really for.
#pudseyrecommends
Huge thanks to Profile Books for the ARC. This has easily become one of my standout non-fiction reads of the year.
In What If We Got AI Right?, Dr Eleanor Drage delivers a fearless and deeply human look at how we might actually live with AI, and how we might work with it, rather than simply be swept along by it. What struck me most is how she refuses both extremes. The glossy utopian promises of Big Tech and the equally unhelpful doom-laden apocalypse narratives are both set aside. Instead, she sits in the uncomfortable middle ground and asks us to pay attention. To slow down. To think.
She writes, “The reality is that progress is hard, incremental work: there is no silver-bullet solution,” and that idea lingers throughout the book. It steadily dismantles the idea that AI will suddenly “fix” everything. If anything, Drage shows how those promises can mask something far more extractive and unequal beneath the surface.
And that’s where this book really hit home for me. Drage doesn’t just talk about technology and systems, she talks about people. The hidden labour. The environmental cost. The uncomfortable truths we’d often rather scroll past. One line in particular stayed with me: “The promise of prosperity is merely a way to justify the creation of increasingly costly and exploitative AI systems.” It reframes so much of the current conversation in a way that feels difficult to unsee once you’ve read it.
I’ve read a few books circling this space recently, from fiction like Moderation to non-fiction like Code Dependent, and I think What If We Got AI Right? sits alongside them in an important way. Where those books explore different aspects of our relationship with AI, Drage turns her attention to the wider systems, structures and power behind it. There’s a ‘down-to-earthness’ to her writing that cuts through the noise, a ‘groundedness’ that makes even the most complex ideas feel accessible. She isn’t simply theorising about some distant future. She is drawing attention to the consequences of systems that are already here, and to the people who are already living with them.
What I also appreciated is how she challenges the language we use around AI. The idea that there even is a single “AI industry”, for example, is something she dismantles with ease: “There is no longer an ‘AI industry’, as AI is integrated into almost every industry.” It’s a reminder that this isn’t some distant, abstract force. AI is already woven into the very fabric of our everyday lives, often in ways we barely notice.
There’s also a fascinating thread running through the book about what it means to be human in the first place. Drage leans into the idea that technology isn’t separate from us, but part of us, and that the boundary has always been blurred. Her exploration of this, from medical interventions to social systems, leads to a simple but profound shift: “There is no nature versus technology. Those two things have been bound together since the beginning.”
It’s the kind of idea that reshapes how you think about everything else in the book. We are not fixed, purely organic beings standing outside technology. We are already shaped by the tools, systems, medicines, infrastructures and technologies that make our lives possible. The question, then, is not whether technology is somehow separate from humanity, but what kinds of futures we are building, and who gets to decide what those futures look like.
At the same time, Drage doesn’t shy away from calling out power. Whether it’s the concentration of wealth, the silencing of ethics teams within major tech companies, or the way fear is often manufactured to justify surveillance, there’s a clear-eyed honesty here.
Her discussion of AI in policing and protest surveillance is particularly chilling, not because it feels speculative, but because it doesn’t. The book looks at the use of AI systems to monitor protests, the lack of transparency surrounding their deployment, and the disproportionate risks faced by Black and Brown communities. This is not some distant dystopian possibility. You don’t have to look too far to see that these systems are already shaping how people are watched, classified and treated.
And yet, despite all of this, the book never tips into hopelessness. If anything, it feels oddly reassuring. Drage keeps returning to the idea that things could be different, not because AI will somehow save us, but because the systems we build are shaped by human decisions, and human decisions can be challenged.
There’s a moment where she draws on the Greek concept of pharmakon, something that can be both poison and cure, and it feels like the perfect lens for the entire book. AI is not inherently one thing or the other. It can become a tool of exploitation, surveillance and inequality, or it can be shaped towards something more equitable. The important question is not simply what AI can do, but who is shaping it, who benefits from it, and who is asked to bear the cost.
This is one of those rare non-fiction reads that I know I’ll keep coming back to. I’ve already found myself rereading sections, sitting with certain passages a little longer, and noticing how often it drifts back into my thoughts during the day. It has more than a earned spot on my bedside table for the foreseeable future.
If you’re even slightly curious, or concerned, about AI, I’d really urge you to pick this up. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t sensationalise. It simply exposes the realities of what is already happening, asks better questions, and in doing so offers something far more valuable: a way to think about AI that feels grounded, ethical and genuinely human.
Dr Eleanor Drage makes a compelling case that a better future with AI isn’t just possible, it’s still within reach, if we’re willing to rethink who it’s really for.
#pudseyrecommends
Huge thanks to Profile Books for the ARC. This has easily become one of my standout non-fiction reads of the year.
August 12, 2026
Possibly one of the most optimistic books I’ve read on AI - it balances academically intellectual heft with real life examples of AI being used for good and how we can all think and do something to better our lives in this new age of technological progress! Highly recommend 😁😁
Read
October 25, 2026I’ve been sort of reading this for ages. It’s makes some good points but I the style of coherence was challenging.
October 30, 2026
This book educated me on AI, giving me a much more balanced perspective. It did make me feel more comfortable with the idea of it, it only scared me as much as capitalism does.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews