I have a confession. Back in July, I found myself in possession of a swarm of AI agents, and, well, you know the rest.
Now, more people than ever have questions about AI. And I happened to spend the last few years writing answers to all those questions (and then some). My book Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace Us—and How to Stop It is out now!
You can buy it here (complete with a way to find nearby indie bookstores shipping it).
Good news, bad news: it seems we’ve already cleaned retailers out of their stock, but more books are on the way sooner than the retailers expect, so don’t be dissuaded from ordering the paperback if you’d like one. E-book and audiobook are available now (and the Kindle version is the #1 new release in Technology and the Audible is #1 new release in Computer Science!).
The book is about the best-funded project in history: the race to render us obsolete. As we are already seeing, the implications of that race go far beyond just jobs. If you want to make sense of what’s happening, Obsolete is a great place to start. And if you’re an insider looking for a plan for how we can win a human future, this book is for you too.
It covers questions like: Why are people building something they say is so dangerous? Can’t we just unplug it? Will the bubble save us? Aren’t the sci-fi stories distracting us from the ways AI is hurting people now? Hasn’t AI hit a wall? Won’t it? Isn’t it just remixing what it’s seen before? How could an LLM take over the world anyway? Why would it even want to? And what about China? Is it too late to stop? Are we gonna make it?
And while Obsolete has a perspective, I approached these questions as a journalist and followed the reporting and research where it led. I changed my mind a lot. Some big ones: I became much more convinced our default path is toward dystopia or doom, depending on whether Silicon Valley’s machines do as they’re told. But I also became much more optimistic that we can change course, as the world wakes up to what these companies are actually trying to do.
I really hope you like reading it, and if you do, early reviews and ratings on Amazon and Goodreads are incredibly helpful for a book’s visibility and long-term performance. Sharing the Twitter, LinkedIn, and Bluesky posts is also a quick way to help.
And if you’d like to try before you buy: Here’s an adaptation out in The Guardian aiming to shift our attention from shaming personal chatbot use to organizing against our obsolescence. And here’s one in The Nation on the remarkable story of the Nuclear Freeze movement, which holds many lessons for us today. Look out for a few other adaptations coming soon.
It was also a treat to go back on Breaking Points and get into the book, as well as AI’s threat to jobs and art, and more:
If you’re already convinced to take action, I recommend checking out Irreplaceable. (I serve on the nonprofit board and am donating my share of the book’s royalties to Irreplaceable.) Founded by veterans of the climate movement, Irreplaceable aims to meet people where they are, organize their anger into political power, and build a coalition strong enough to win democratic control over AI. The nonprofit is organizing a national walkout to Freeze AI on October 20. Anyone can join one near them or host their own.
Amidst the never-ending-AI-news-cycle, I’ve done a terrible job of sharing these endorsements as they’ve come in, but I’ve felt so lucky that Obsolete has received such kind words from so many people I admire. Here’s the full collection:
“Thoughtful, well-reasoned…and absolutely terrifying. … a crucial blueprint” — AJ Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically
“Incisive, urgent, and necessary,” — Breaking Points cohost Krystal Ball
“A masterpiece… If you worry about AI and want to know how we actually win, read it.” — NY Assemblymember Alex Bores
“I can’t recommend Obsolete highly enough. Will be the most important book of 2026.” — Compact Mag editor at large Greg Conti
“If you are worried about AI, this timely and engaging book tells you that you should be because Silicon Valley has made choices that should indeed worry us all.” — Daron Acemoğlu, Nobel laureate in economics and author of Why Nations Fail
“A monumental work on the implications of AI for popular democracy. It’s incisive, well-sourced, and jarring. Pick it up!” — Cassie Pritchard, labor organizer
“The best book I’ve read on AI. It’s supremely timely, it takes no prisoners, and Sam Altman will hate it” — Luke Kemp, Cambridge existential risk scholar and author of Goliath’s Curse
“Garrison Lovely is exactly what the Left needs at this moment in technological history.” — Robert Wright, author of Nonzero and Why Buddhism Is True
“A well-researched exposé on Big Tech’s quest for Universal Labor-Replacing Machines and the propaganda used to justify it.” — Max Tegmark, professor of physics at MIT and author of Life 3.0
“Garrison Lovely is one of our best researchers and thinkers. His work is an antidote to fuzzy thinking, essential for understanding what the real risks of AI are and how they can be dealt with effectively.” — Nathan Robinson, editor of Current Affairs
“Obsolete is funny, furious, and correct: Silicon Valley promised us tools, but is building replacements. Read it before your replacement does.” — Roman V. Yampolskiy, author of AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable
“A deeply researched cutting-edge exposition of the grim situation humanity finds itself in with respect to AI, and what we can do about it . . . even-handed while expressing a strong and correct view of what is happening.” — Anthony Aguirre, theoretical physicist; executive director, Future of Life Institute
“An invaluable primer on AI’s ins and outs, and an urgent warning about the threat its corporate boosterists’ plans pose to democracy and civilization itself.” — Luke Savage, author of The Dead Center