This timely book explores the impact of the AI age through a psychosocial lens. It's a wake up call—the AI age is reducing the richness of the human experience and doing more to increase our self-esteem rather than our actual intelligence. Luckily this book offers valuable suggestions on what we each can do to counterbalance the negative impacts of AI.

I, Human initially caught my eye because of the Asimov reference in the title, and I decided to read it because the premise-- an exploration of how AI impacts human society-- was interesting, as well as relevant to my own paranoia about surveillance capitalism and the fragmentation of society due to algorithm-fueled hyper-polarization. Overall, it was an engaging read, although there were some assertions I felt weren't backed up with enough solid evidence.

The book touches on a wide variety of different issues exacerbated by the ever-more-ubiquitous presence of AI and influence of "the algorithm" on our lives. From the social-media-fueled narcissism epidemic to surveillance capitalism to political homogeneity/echo chambers, a lot of the problems facing modern society can be said to be at least somewhat influenced by the impact of AI.

The main argument of the book seems to be that AI is effectively "simplifying" our lives, dumbing us down, and increasing our predictability. This was a really interesting thesis, because usually speculation about the threat posed by AI is focused on more flashy and outlandish threats, like The Terminator or HAL-9000 moments. Chamorro-Premuzic's approach, an exploration of the more subtle ways over-reliance on technology can impact our psychology and patterns of behavior, was a breath of fresh air for me.

However, I do think that he neglected to explore some of the more positive impacts that these technologies have had on our lives, and the book covered such a wide scope that some of the more fascinating topics only got a shallow treatment.

If you want to read an interesting book about how the AI boom could and has impacted society and culture, this one would be a good choice.