🗞️ Issue 75  // ⏱️ Read Time: 5 min

Hello 👋

Our newsletter readers tend to be smart, so we doubt you require a deeper introduction this week than the actual title of this newsletter. We’ve curated some of the most relevant and AI-related resources out there, so that you can have a good summer. It’s essentially what we always do: Deliver the highest quality information to help you cut through the noise. 

4 books, 3 short reads, 2 YouTube videos, and the one-and-only podcast playlist.

Vamos! 🏖️

4 books

1 A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence, Jeff Hawkins, Richard Dawkins Recommendation by Lydia Chen, the banker who turned into a Climate Tech founder and has a brilliant podcast. 

If we don’t understand human intelligence, how will we understand artificial intelligence? This is a theory of intelligence, of understanding the brain and the future of AI.

2 Julia: A Novel by Sandra Newman, based on the classic 1984 by George Orwell 

Yes, we know, these are two books. We’re technically cheating by counting it as one, making the total number of books on this list 4 instead of 5. Anyway: This is a good moment to revisit an old story through new eyes. For those of you who know your Orwell, you remember that Julia is a fictional character in this dystopian novel from 1949. 

3 Co-Intelligence - Living and Working with AI, by Ethan Mollick

Published in April 2024, this book is already kind of…old, considering its purpose: A playbook for working, learning, and living in the new age of AI. Some outdated information? Maybe. Methods and mindsets more relevant than ever? Definitely. 

The author is a professor of management at Wharton, specializing in entrepreneurship and innovation, and the depth of insight he provides in this relatively simple book is immense. 

4 Empire of AI - Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI by Karen Hao

Who is Sam Altman, and who governs AI? This book provides an alternative, less polished, narrative of one of the most impactful tech companies of our time. Columbia Law School professor and former White House official Tim Wu calls journalist Karen Hao’s new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, “a corrective to tech journalism that rarely leaves Silicon Valley.” Make sure to watch the Ted Talk too.

3 short reads

1 How to keep your writing weird in the age of AI by Katie Parrott, Every

“When everyone has access to the same polishing tool, we risk a kind of digital invisibility—millions of pieces of content, all professionally adequate, none memorable.” This is an excellent guide for how to use, and how not to use, AI in your writing. 

2 Five dimensions of scaling democratic deliberation: With and beyond AI by Claudia Chwalisz and Sammy McKinney, DemocracyNext

This paper explores what scaling democratic deliberation means, why it’s valuable, and what the role of AI is in enabling it. 

3 Artificial Influence: An Analysis Of AI-Driven Persuasion Recommendation by John Walker-Robinson, London Stock Exchange Group

Are you choosing, or are you being chosen for? Algorithms have moved beyond reflecting our preferences: They're shaping them. AI systems can alter not only what we do, but what we want to do. Their ability to personalise at scale, and in some cases, form emotionally resonant relationships with users, is redefining persuasion itself. When did you last realise you were being nudged by tech, and did it sit right with you?

2 Youtube Videos 

1 How the universe thinks without a brain 

Claire L. Evans keynote challenges our traditional notions of intelligence, urging us to look beyond the confines of the human mind. This perspective encourages us to move beyond a reductionist view of intelligence and consider the vast potential of biological and morphological computing. 

2 How to build an AI first company 

Aaron Levie, CEO & co-founder of Box, joins Azeem Azhar to explore how an “AI-first” mindset is reshaping every layer of Box – from product road-maps to pricing – and what that teaches the rest of us about building faster, smarter organisations.

The one and only podcast playlist 

1 Team Lumiera gathers the podcasts we listen to (and the podcasts we have participated in) in this playlist. For those of you that have been subscribers to this playlist for a long time - please note that this is a new link, and the other playlist will be deleted. Subscribe here!

Until next time. And Happy Midsummer. 🇸🇪
On behalf of Team Lumiera

Emma - Business Strategist
Allegra - Data Specialist

Lumiera has gathered the brightest people from the technology and policy sectors to give you top-quality advice so you can navigate the new AI Era.

Follow the carefully curated Lumiera podcast playlist to stay informed and challenged on all things AI.