For readers of Sapiens and Homo Deus and viewers of The Social Dilemma, psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic tackles one of the biggest questions facing our species: Will we use artificial intelligence to improve the way we work and live, or will we allow it to alienate us?

It's no secret that AI is changing the way we live, work, love, and entertain ourselves. Dating apps are using AI to pick our potential partners. Retailers are using AI to predict our behavior and desires. Rogue actors are using AI to persuade us with bots and misinformation. Companies are using AI to hire us—or not.

In I, Human psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic takes readers on an enthralling and eye-opening journey across the AI landscape. Though AI has the potential to change our lives for the better, he argues, AI is also worsening our bad tendencies, making us more distracted, selfish, biased, narcissistic, entitled, predictable, and impatient.

It doesn't have to be this way. Filled with fascinating insights about human behavior and our complicated relationship with technology, I, Human will help us stand out and thrive when many of our decisions are being made for us. To do so, we'll need to double down on our curiosity, adaptability, and emotional intelligence while relying on the lost virtues of empathy, humility, and self-control.

This is just the beginning. As AI becomes smarter and more humanlike, our societies, our economies, and our humanity will undergo the most dramatic changes we've seen since the Industrial Revolution. Some of these changes will enhance our species. Others may dehumanize us and make us more machinelike in our interactions with people. It's up to us to adapt and determine how we want to live and work.

The choice is ours.

What will we decide?

Table of Contents

1. Being in the Al Age 
2. Weapons of Mass Distraction 
3. The End of Patience 
4. Taming Bias 
5. Digital Narcissism 
6. The Rise of Predictable Machines 
7. Automating Curiosity 
8. How to Be Human 

Review

"Fascinating, original and thought-provoking." — E&T magazine

"The book's final chapter, How to Be Human, is headed with a quote from Maya Angelou: "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them." This encapsulates the purpose of this unique book: to explain how AI is changing our lives, values, and ways of being—right now, never mind what this implies for the future—and to propose the means by which AI should and can enhance and enrich human experience rather than reduce it." — Developing Leaders magazine

"…this is not an AI book like others. It does not try to predict the future or bamboozle readers with technological geekery. Instead, it assesses where this technology has brought us thus far and what we can do with it to retain what is most important to us as people." — Financial Times

"…a shrewd, insightful take on the dangers of AI." — Publisher's Weekly

Advance Praise for I, Human:

"A compelling read about how AI is shaping us—and how we should shape it. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic examines how technology can augment our intelligence and reminds us to invest in the human skills that robots can't replace." — Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author, Think Again; host, TED podcast Re:Thinking

"A must-read for anyone who has wondered how we can maintain our humanity amid the superpowerful prediction machines we've created." — Angela Duckworth, author, New York Times bestselling Grit

"Techno-zealots and doomsayers dominate the debate about artificial intelligence, which is why this unique book is such a breath of fresh air. I, Human is a strikingly clear-eyed account of the fraught but fertile relationship we already have with AI—and an inspiring argument for how, in the future, it can help us maintain and enhance rather than degrade what makes us essentially human." — Oliver Burkeman, New York Times bestselling author, Four Thousand Weeks

"If you want to understand how we can best thrive in a world that is rapidly changing because of AI, and feel hopeful and confident about the role you can play, you'll find this book to be both brilliant and essential. Full of insights and practical tips, I, Human will prepare you for the future by focusing your attention on the very traits that make human nature unique." — Francesca Gino, professor, Harvard Business School; author, Rebel Talent

"I, Human argues compellingly that artificial intelligence is altering human intelligence—fueling narcissism, diluting self-control, reinforcing prejudice—and reveals how human learning can still counteract the malign effects of machine learning. Tomas's easy style and dry humor bely the seriousness with which he tackles this vital issue of our time. Take note before the robots take over how you think." — Octavius Black, founder and CEO, MindGym

"At last, a book on AI that focuses on humans rather than machines. A powerful case for reclaiming some of our most valuable neglected virtues." — Dorie Clark, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, The Long Game; executive education faculty, Duke University Fuqua School of Business

About the Author

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is the Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup, Professor of Business Psychology at University College London and at Columbia University, cofounder of Deeper Signals, and an associate at Harvard's Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. He is the author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (and How to Fix It), upon which his TEDx talk was based.

Find Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic on Twitter at twitter.com/drtcp or at drtomas.com.