A non-exhaustive collection of worth-reading books on topics strongly related to Critical AI (Third edition)

Curated by Prof. Dr. Dagmar Monett


(Click on the headers to sort columns' content differently!)
First author Coauthors Year Book title Publisher
Weizenbaum, Joseph Wendt, Gunna 2015 Islands in the Cyberstream: Seeking Havens of Reason in a Programmed Society Litwin Books
Weizenbaum, Joseph 1976 Computer power and human reason : from judgment to calculation W. H. Freeman
Postman, Neil 1992 Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology Penguin Random House
McQuillan, Dan 2022 Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence Bristol University Press
Noble, Safiya Umoja 2018 Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism NYU Press
Shew, Ashley 2023 Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement W. W. Norton & Company
Mejías, Ulises A. Couldry, Nick 2024 Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back The University of Chicago Press
Muldoon, James Graham, Mark; Cant, Callum 2024 Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI Bloomsbury Publishing
Gray, Mary L. Suri, Siddharth 2019 Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass HarperCollins Publishers
Duarte, Tania Barrow, Nicholas; Bakayeva, Medina; Smith, Peter 2024 The Ethical Implications of AI Hype: Examining the overinflation and misrepresentation of AI capabilities and performance Springer Nature
Broussard, Meredith 2019 Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World The MIT Press
Eubanks, Virginia 2018 Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor Macmillan Publishers
Costanza-Chock, Sasha 2020 Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need The MIT Press
Pasquale, Frank 2020 New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI Harvard University Press
Watters, Audrey 2023 Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning The MIT Press
Sadowski, Jathan 2025 The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism University of California Press
Merchant, Brian 2023 Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech Little, Brown and Company
Mueller, Gavin 2021 Breaking things at work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job Verso
Kingsnorth, Paul 2025 Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity Penguin Random House
Dreyfus, Hubert L. Dreyfus, Stuart E. 1986 Mind over Machine: The power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer The Free Press
Williams, Rua M. 2025 Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI Springer Nature
Collins, Harry 2018 Artifictional Intelligence: Against Humanity's Surrender to Computers John Wiley & Sons
Hasselbalch, Gry 2025 Human Power: Seven Traits for the Politics of the AI Machine Age Routledge
Benjamin, Ruha 2019 Race after Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code John Wiley & Sons
Benjamin, Ruha 2025 Imagination: A Manifesto W. W. Norton & Company
Stengers, Isabelle 2017 Another Science is Possible: A Manifesto for Slow Science Polity
Katz, Yarden 2020 Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence Columbia University Press
Crawford, Kate 2022 Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence Yale University Press
Madianou, Mirca 2024 Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful Polity
Zuboff, Shoshana 2019 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power PublicAffairs
Bender, Emily M. Hanna, Alex 2025 The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want HarperCollins Publishers
Hao, Karen 2025 Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI Penguin Random House
Adib-Moghaddam, Arshin 2025 The Myth of Good AI: A manifesto for critical Artificial Intelligence Manchester University Press
Larson, Erik J. 2022 The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: Why Computers Can’t Think the Way We Do Harvard University Press
O'Neil, Cathy 2023 The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation Penguin Random House
O'Neil, Cathy 2017 Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy Penguin Random House
Mascheroni, Giovanna Siibak, Andra 2021 Datafied Childhoods: Data Practices and Imaginaries in Children’s Lives Peter Lang
Landgrebe, Jobst Smith, Barry 2022, 2025 Why Machines Will Never Rule the World: Artificial Intelligence without Fear Routledge
Davies, Dan 2024 The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind The University of Chicago Press
Hare, Stephanie 2022 Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics London Publishing Partnership
Buolamwini, Joi 2023 Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines Random House
Narayanan, Arvind Kapoor, Sayash 2024 AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference Princeton University Press
Véliz, Carissa 2022 Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data Penguin Random House
Véliz, Carissa 2024 The Ethics of Privacy and Surveillance Oxford University Press
Lindgren, Simon 2023 Handbook of Critical Studies of Artificial Intelligence Edward Elgar Publishing
Raley, Rita Rhee, Jennifer 2023 Critical AI: A Field in Formation Duke University Press
Steen, Marc 2023 Ethics for People Who Work in Tech Routledge
Smith, Gary 2023 Distrust: Big Data, Data-Torturing, and the Assault on Science Oxford University Press
Véliz, Carissa 2023 Oxford Handbook of Digital Ethics Oxford University Press
Havens, John 2016 Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines Penguin Random House
Vallor, Shannon 2024 The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking Oxford University Press
Carr, Nicholas 2025 Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart W. W. Norton & Company
Doctorow, Cory 2023 The Internet Con: How to seize the means of computation Verso
Doctorow, Cory 2025 Enshitification: Why everything suddenly got worse and what to do about it Verso
Crary, Jonathan 2022 Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist World Verso
Kitchin, Rob Fraser, Alistair 2020 Slow Computing: Why We Need Balanced Digital Lives Bristol University Press
Rikap, Cecilia Lundvall, Bengt-Åke 2021 The Digital Innovation Race: Conceptualizing the Emerging New World Order Springer Nature
Smith Budhai, Stephanie Heath, Marie K. 2025 Critical AI in K-12 Classrooms: A Practical Guide for Cultivating Justice and Joy Harvard Education Press
Kowalkiewicz, Marek 2024 The Economy of Algorithms: AI and the Rise of the Digital Minions Bristol University Press
Peacock, Vita Bruun, Mikkel Kenni; Dungey, Claire; Shapiro, Matan 2025 Rhythm and Vigilance: Ethnographies of Surveillance and Time Bristol University Press
Beer, David 2024 The Tensions of Algorithmic Thinking: Automation, Intelligence and the Politics of Knowing Bristol University Press
Taffel, Sy 2026 Postgrowth Digital Futures: Digital Technologies, Degrowth, and Radical Abundance Bristol University Press

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Essential to consider:
As Olivia Guest et al. (2025, p. 7) write and cite,
[C]ritical washing — encouraging AI use while being ‘aware of the risks’ — must be avoided:
When we critique AI, we should do so with intellectual honesty and in a principled way. [R]eflecting on the harms of AI is not itself harm reduction. It may even contribute to rationalizing, normalizing, and enabling harm. Critical reflection without appropriate action is thus quintessentially critical washing. Marcela Suárez et al. (2025, par. 7).

How to cite the latest edition of this collection:
Monett, D. (2025). A non-exhaustive collection of worth-reading books on topics strongly related to Critical AI (Third edition). https://monettdiaz.com/books-critical-ai.html


Disclaimer:
The first edition of this collection originated from several lists of titles I have been sending to my university library almost yearly. Other titles were suggested by members of my LinkedIn community (thanks!) or have been continuously added by me upon “discovery”.

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