The Nobodies

I was recently in the beautiful city of Guanjauto, where I went to the Mummy museum. 

The museum is one of the main attractions of a city that I found to be the main attraction; its narrow colonial streets and the tunnels that made the city feel as if it were constructed on numerous floors, as well as its fascinating history, Guanajuato being a rich mining town that went through ups and downs, but was also a major center of Mexico’s independence struggle in the early 1800s, as well as the birthplace of the great Diego Rivera. 

All that nevertheless seemed to be absent in the history of the mummies, which contrary to my naive expectations, were not mummies coming from pre-Colombian archeological sites. Maybe there is no difference between a 2000 year old mummy, or a 50 year old one - they are vestiges of a time - the well-preserved remains of a life lived, but at the same time the former is history, while the latter may have interacted with people we know! 

There is thus a strange closeness to these mummies that come from the local cemetery, still adjacent to the museum. They are all from the 19th and 20th century, well-preserved bodies due to the special dry conditions in their burial niches, from which they were removed because nobody paid the fees for their upkeep after five years of them being laid to rest. 

Some of the mummies are from the 1970s - they may have watched the same TV shows we see today! There was a mummy who was stabbed to death in 1942 - his murderer may have been able to see his victim in the museum.... Or the lady who as buried with her dead fetus, colloquially known as “the smallest mummy in the world”. 

While I did not want to take pictures, I was particularly taken by the young lady whose entire body was naked, her clothes having been eaten by molds, but her fancy leather boots remained - with long laces, rounded toes and small heels, probably from the first years of the 20th century. They were quite elegant, and must have been rather fashionable at the time. These boots may have been her best piece of clothing; something that she was proud of, and made her look and feel special in the eternal world of appearances that was as real now as it was then. Perhaps they were her best boots, the ones she wore when she wanted to look particularly elegant to others; for an event - to show off to her friends and family. Perhaps she had been proud of them. Her family may have imagined that she wanted to be buried in these boots, her best boots, and so she was, with these boots now being what remains of her, alongside her mummified body. 

We do not know why these people were removed from the resting place. Maybe their families were too poor to afford the upkeep, or simply they were forgotten; the lonely; those whose lives were a parenthesis; those who had nobody - who left no mark; maybe too poor and marginalised to ever be remembered. 

Eduardo Galeano would have called them “Los Nadies”. 

The Mummy Museum in Guanajuato is a macabre monument to those “nobodies”, and in a strange way I thought that it now seems ironic then that the exact marginalisation that suddenly took them away from their eternal resting place, took them to a museum. They could not remain in their graves, but today people pay to see them! They never had grand mausoleums, but have now become some of Guanajuato's most famous inhabitants. 

And there they are, laughing straight at us with their bare teeth and empty eye sockets. They certainly had the last laugh!

The Soviet Medal

I was recently at home going through some old dusty boxes and found this medal you can see on the picture below. Appears like a Soviet medal, and I remembered that when I was in Hungary, Budapest, in 1992 on a study trip with my "gymnasie" class from Birkerød. The Iron Curtain had recently fallen, and it was in fact my first trip to the East - to countries that only a few years before had been inaccessible to us, and in my young mind they still symbolised the Cold War that I had been born into, but had just ended. 

Budapest was lovely, still overcoming the decades of Communism; the country was still trying to find its new identity in a Liberal Western world where they would eventually become a full-fledged member of the EU in 2005. In 1992 the city retained its Soviet looks but with a refreshing atmosphere of expectation and openness to all things new coming from the West. The many beautiful tourist spots of the city had still not learnt to cater to Western tourists, and were largely empty, but with their historical beauty. How different it was from the Budapest I visited again in 2016! 

It was in this context that Soviet souvenirs were being sold on the street: the once so mighty Soviet army had befallen to its soldiers selling off clothes and medals for whatever meager price that Westerners like myself were willing to pay. It was a symbol of a defeated empire and for young people like myself, an opportunity to have a small part of a history that even now is just for the books... 

I bought this medal that I found in an old box of memories that has traveled from country to country for more than 20 years, and with the magic of AI that we have now, I inquired ChatGPT about the medal.  It is in fact not a not a military medal. It is a KOMSOMOL award badge from the 11th Five-Year Plan. 

Formed in 1918 immediately after the revolution, KOMSOMOL was the youth wing of the Communist Party of the USSR; an important organisation that functioned as a training ground for aspiring Communists and promoted the ideology among the young. As part of this propaganda the organisation awarded medals for the most outstanding youth, and this medal was probably awarded to a proud young member, - “A Young Guardsman” -, for having distinguished him- or herself (even Guardsman) in working hard in Soviet productivity, technology or innovation, or even just some outstanding work within the KOMSOMOL.  

The 11th Five-year plan was the USSRs development plan between 1981 and 1985. These plans were typical Communist centralised blueprints, coordinated and implemented but the State Planning Agency GOSPLAN, that aimed to increase production at almost any cost. 

The first plan, between 1928-1932 was prepared under Josef Stalin (1878-1953) with the aim to massively industrialize Soviet society by any means, and it thus led to massive oppression and the death of hundreds of thousands (Despite this, it might have set the USSR in the path to an industrial development that would give it an important fighting chance in WWII).  

By the 1980s the focus on the plans were changing. The Soviet state was already lagging behind the West in terms of productivity and technology, and the focus on the 11th plan was rather to integrate production and renew and replace hardware to make it more efficient. 

After this, there were two more plans: the 12th plan in 1985 was Mikhail Gorbachev's (1931-2022) plan to accelerate industrial production and decentralise power, implementing "perestroyka". By 1989, under deep social and political pressure, the plan had failed to stop the economic decline of the USSR. A new plan, the 13th, was designed, but it barely started to be implemented as the USSR fell apart, and GOSPLAN ceased to exist.  

This is the little memory and story behind this little souvenir from an Empire and a time that no longer exists! According to the AI they are quite common, so probably of little value, some EUR 50, perhaps a bit more for a collector. But in my little world, it has great personal and historical value!

Karen Hao: Empire of AI (2025)

"Empire of AI", by Karen Hao, tell the history of OpenAI, from its creation as a non-profit with the ambition of developing AI for the benefit of humanity, to the profit-making company behind ChatGPT; one of the most powerful actors in AI today. 

Much of the book follows Sam Altman and the people around OpenAI: It describes their disagreements, changing business model and eventually the crisis in 2023, when Altman was fired by the board only to return a few days later. This history is interesting because OpenAI is not just another company: it is influencing how one of the most important technologies of our time is developing. 

I felt that the book at times became too personal (some of the conflicts sound very similar to what can happen in any office…), and some of the biographical material unnecessary for the book’s point (in particular on Mr. Altman’s sister). 

What I found much more interesting though, were the disagreements about what AI actually means and where it may take us. In fact, OpenAI itself was born out of these questions: If more powerful AI can transform society, who should control it? Should development be accelerated because of the enormous benefits it could bring, or slowed because we do not understand the risks? The disagreement between the AI “boomers” and “doomers” runs through much of the history of OpenAI and helps explain many of its internal conflicts. Thus, the best part of the book is when it looks beyond OpenAI itself; for instance when it discusses the enormous data centers needed to develop AI (including their consumption of energy and water, and the human labour behind AI, including workers in developing countries hired to label data and moderate disturbing content). The apparently immaterial world of AI actually depends on very physical infrastructure, resources and human labour, something that is too often lost in the wider discussion on the technology. 

Ms. Hao’s main argument is that there is an emerging “Empire of AI”; a small number of powerful tech companies and individuals concentrating technology, capital and decision-making while exploiting resources, data and labour from across the world, just like any previous capitalist exploitation throughout history. 

I was less convinced about this argument, as I think that it on the one hand ignores the complexity and speed of technological change, as well as simplifying the social dynamics of such change. I got a bit annoyed when she appeared to criticize people at OpenAI for not providing satisfactory answers about the consequences of AI, implying that they were avoiding difficult questions. I rather think there may be  another explanation: they simply do not know the answers! 

And that was indeed the most interesting conclusion I took from the book: The people developing AI are obviously intelligent, ambitious and visionary, but they are all still human beings! As Ms. Hao amply proves, they disagree, make mistakes, fight over office politics and interpret evidence differently, and in fact these people themselves do not really know how quickly it will develop, what its impact will be, what resources it will require, what it will do to employment and inequality, or what role it will eventually have in our societies. 

I therefore think the book could have been much stronger if it had used the history of OpenAI more explicitly as a way to explore these questions. 

Maybe my slightly uncomfortable conclusion from the book is that there appears to be nobody anywhere who fully understand what is happening with AI: Not OpenAI, not academics, not governments, not business... They have different ideas about what might happen, but nobody really knows where AI is going or how quickly we will get there... 

Of course this does not mean that we should panic about AI, nor that we should simply leave its development to tech companies and billionaires. It rather means that we should talk much more seriously about what we want from this technology, what risks we are willing to accept, how its benefits and costs should be distributed, and what role we want it to have in our societies. 

That is also why I would still recommend the book as one more in a canon of AI books; read together with other AI books it shows the very human organisation behind a technology that can otherwise seem almost abstract, and thus the questions we are all struggling with.

Nigel Toon: How AI Thinks (2024)

This is a great book, very up to date (2024) that basically aims to explain how artificial intelligence has developed, how it actually works, and what its impact on society may be. It thus covers all the discussions and is written for a general audience, taking on the task of demystifying AI at this moment when the technology is coming to the fore in all aspects of our lives. The book’s message is that AI is neither magic nor science fiction; it is rather a powerful tool built from data, algorithms, and computing power—capable of transforming society, but still fundamentally different from human intelligence. 

The book begins by tracing the origins of AI; a story we have heard before, but that focuses on the shift from programming of logical machines, to machine learning, where computers learn patterns from large amounts of data instead of relying on explicit rules. This change, combined with stronger computing power (he mentions that computing power to train AI models increased 300 000-fold between 2012 and 2019), as well as the growth of massive datasets, have led to today’s AI breakthroughs. An important points that Mr. Toon tries to get through throughout the book is that modern AI systems do not think like humans and their so-called “intelligence” is rather limited from its lack of experience and intuition. He quotes Alan Turing in a short chapter that tries to answer “what is intelligence”: “If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent”. 

Instead, the AI systems learn statistical patterns. Neural networks analyze enormous quantities o if examples—images, text, or speech—and gradually adjust millions of parameters until they can make probabilistic predictions or generate new outputs. It is a system approach that can complement human intelligence, but not replace it. 

Following the development of AI and how it works, the book then looks at the societal impact of AI, arguing that AI will transform many industries—medicine, science, finance, and creative work. However, Toon warns that people often misunderstand its capabilities. AI excels at pattern recognition and prediction, but it does not possess consciousness, understanding, or human common sense. Because of this, AI can still make strange mistakes or produce incorrect information even when it appears “intelligent”. The author still finds that the opportunities of AI are enormous in terms of accelerating scientific discovery, improving healthcare and climate research and automating complex tasks; these are areas where we are already starting to see the impact. At the same time, he also stresses the need for governance and control, ensuring that AI systems are used responsibly and that society understands how they operate. AI is a tool, and in the end it is about how human uses them. 

A great book, perhaps one of the best to read currently on the subject for general audiences.

Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan: AI 2041

“AI 2041” by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan is a fascinating mix of storytelling and analysis, imagining how artificial intelligence could shape our lives over the next two decades. The book explores AI themes though ten short stories set in different parts of the world, and then follows each story with an essay explaining the technologies behind the stories. 

The central message is that AI will not arrive in one sudden leap, but through gradual integration into almost everything we do. 

Having been written in 2021, the book looks 20 years ahead, imagining that by 2041, AI will be integrated into much of our lives — in healthcare, education, finance, transport, entertainment and public services — shaping decisions, and entailing opportunities and risks that will deeply transform our societies. 

A recurring theme is the geopolitical and economic dimension of AI. Countries with access to large amounts of data, computing power and talent will lead the race, with the United States and China clearly positioned at the forefront. This growing concentration of technological power could reshape global influence and economic competition. For other countries and regions, including Europe and the Global South, the challenge will be how to remain relevant. 

On the societal side, the book treats different subjects, from love to how AI will reshape work. Many routine or repetitive tasks are likely to be automated, from logistics and manufacturing to administrative functions. The short story “The Job Savior” is about a man whose job has been automated works as a “re-employment companion,” helping other workers adapt to AI-driven changes and reflects on automation, large-scale job displacement, and the psychological dimension of this ongoing economic transition. 

However, the book does not adopt a purely pessimistic view. New forms of employment will emerge around AI oversight, human-centered services, creative industries and system design. The real risk lies in the transition: without re-skilling, education and social policies to cushion the shift, inequality could widen both within and between societies. The short story “The Golden Elephant” is optimistic in being about a rural Indian girl uses AI-powered education tools and gig platforms to lift herself out of poverty. This is in contrast to the more pessimistic story "The Holy Driver" about the dominance of autonomous vehicles, making human drivers obsolete, except for those who resist. 

Another important thread is human–AI collaboration: The most plausible future is not one in which machines simply replace humans, but one in which they augment human capabilities. Doctors supported by diagnostic algorithms, teachers assisted by adaptive learning tools, or AI systems working with lawyers to strengthen access to justice, are presented as possible scenarios in different stories. In this sense, the book shows that the societies that can benefit most from AI will be those that manage to combine technological efficiency with human judgement, empathy and creativity. 

The book does not shy away from many of the ethical concerns that AI is already raising today. Issues such as surveillance, algorithmic bias, deepfakes and concentration of technological power run throughout the stories. The story “Quantum Genocide" is about the development of quantum computing that breaks all encryption standards, triggering global cybersecurity chaos; the story is a stark warning of the risks of some breakthroughs and the fragility of digital infrastructure. The story “Deepfake Justice” presents a world where AI-generated deepfakes have become so sophisticated that truth itself is contested and legal systems struggle to determine authenticity as visual evidence can no longer be trusted. 

This is a great and accessible book on AI. I don’t only like the approach of the stories, but also its balance: AI is not inherently good or bad - it carries risks as well as potential, and its impact will depend on governance, regulation and the values embedded in its design and use.

 

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee: The Second Machine Age

The Second Machine Age by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee is a book from 2014, and perhaps one of the first books that tried to dwell into the impact that digital technology will have on the economies, and particularly on the nature of work and employment. With the advent of AI technologies this discussion has become even more important, and while they do not specifically go into AI as such, the book remains highly relevant today. 

The book's parting argument is that hat humanity has entered a new era in which digital technologies (eg. computing power, artificial intelligence, robotics, and networks) are transforming economies and societies as profoundly, -perhaps even more -, as the Industrial Revolution once did: this is what they call the “second machine age”. 

Brynjolfsson and McAfee argue that technological progress is accelerating exponentially, driven by improvements in processing power, data availability, and connectivity. This progress enables automation of routine and even complex tasks, boosting productivity and creating enormous wealth. However, there are great risks that the benefits are unevenly distributed: while innovation can generate growth and new opportunities, it also risks widening inequality, displacing certain jobs, and concentrating rewards among highly skilled workers and technology owners. 

Brynjolfsson and McAfee make an argument that in my view is highly relevant today: technology itself is not the main problem; rather, the challenge lies in how societies adapt. This we are indeed seeing, as the technology of AI appears to move at a speed where we are unable to adapt, and this causes both fear and concern in many of us, that the skills we have used lifetimes in learning, become useless in the blink of an eye. The authors of this book call for updated institutions, education systems, and policies that foster innovation while supporting workers through transitions. Encouraging entrepreneurship, investing in digital skills, and rethinking regulation and social safety nets are central to ensuring that technological advances improve broad well-being. 

Ultimately, the book is inherently optimistic in that it argues that the second machine age offers unprecedented potential for prosperity—if societies manage the transition wisely, and this appears even more relevant today than when the book was written, and this is a book that stands as one of the best early books on this subject.

 

Ethan Mollick: Co-intelligence -Living and Working with AI (2024)

The book is written by Ethan Mollick, a leading expert on AI from Wharton University. The book is a relatively short read, written as a practical and optimistic guide to understanding and working with generative AI. The author focuses on how AI can work with us humans: instead of seeing AI as a threat or a distant future risk, Mollick argues that AI should be seen as a collaborative partner (“co-intelligence”) that can enhance human creativity, productivity, and learning. 
The book explains how large language models work, why they matter, and introduces key principles for how people can work with AI:
Always invite AI to the table: Even when you think it won’t help, try it. AI often adds unexpected value — ideas, structure, alternatives, or speed, and it can help you in terms of developing ideas.

• Be the human in the loop: No matter how you use it, you are the boss. Humans must set goals, context, and judgment. AI supports decisions; it should never silently make them.
• Treat AI like a person (but tell it what kind of person it is): He says that while not anthropomorphizing AI, the richest interaction is when you start treating it as a human. In this interaction you will develop how to to prompt. Asking good questions, giving examples, and refining instructions is now a core skill.
• Assume this is the worst AI you will ever use: Never fully trust AI, as it can sound confident but still be wrong. Treat it as a brilliant but unreliable collaborator. Verify facts and logic, but keep experimenting and challenging it.

All in all, Mollick is an optimist about how we are able to use AI in our everyday life, and I have personally started using some of his principles as I experiment with an AI assistant in many everyday tasks, impressed by the technology, but always keeping in my head that it can and should not replace human judgment.
The book is strong as a guideline for everyday use, but not on the societal impact of AI. Although implicitly Mollick is an optimist, he fails to address issues such as unequal access, the impact on jobs (he is clearly of the view that it will not displace jobs for humans, but create new necessities), market concentration, and how AI may come to affect identities and cultures as well as the possible erosion of human enterprise.
It is a good quick read, specially if you want to start experimenting with AI in your everyday life, but it should not stand alone, in particularly on debate on the social impact of AI.