How to Talk to AI

Discover how artificial intelligence thinks and reasons, and how we can make the most of their super-human abilities, in the must read new book from the prize-winning technology writer and author of The Dark Net and The People vs Tech.

A BBC ‘BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IN 2026’
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘[An] essential read’ Emma Saunders, BBC Culture Reporter

Knowing how to speak to AI – and how not to – is a skill that everyone now needs.

Hundreds of millions of people now talk to AI, such as ChatGPT, every day. They organise their finances and holidays, ask advice, seek therapy and find love – via machines. Almost overnight, chatbots are transforming society, politics and business. This is one of the biggest and fastest technological changes in history.

However, most people still don't really understand how AI works, how to make the most of it – or what the dangers are. As some people use it to turbo-charge their productivity at work, others are falling into dangerous conspiracies, delusions and psychosis.

In How to Talk to AI, award-winning technology writer Jamie Bartlett takes you inside the machine: showing how we can stay in control of our powerful new companions, even as they are changing the way we live, feel, and think.

Written in his accessible style, How to Talk to AI is the essential and empowering guide to help you understand how to make the most of these incredible new technologies, without succumbing to new powers of manipulation and control.

My chief interest is the relationship between technology, politics and society - and my aim is to make writing on tech accessible to a general public. I find too many books on the subject are dry, technical and lack human characters. I especially like to find subcultures - the fringe groups and ideas most people dismiss as crazy - because they are very often useful guides to the future. This is the approach I took in my first book 'The Dark Net', which looked at hidden internet subcultures, based on months immersed in these groups.

I write frequently on these questions for several outlets, and do occasional television work - including a two part BBC 2 series about disruption, called 'The Secrets of Silicon Valley'.

You can find most of my recent stuff via my Twitter handle, @jamiejbartlett - and do get in touch with me there, as I always try to respond!