The Best Books We Read in 2025: 2 AI Experts’ Favorite Books of the Year

Empire of AI, by Karen Hao

Recommended by Alexandra Samuel, AI workplace expert and host of Me + Viv

A thrilling look behind the scenes of OpenAI and the biggest tech arms race in history, Empire of AI “instantly struck a cultural nerve” (TIME). Author Karen Hao is a long-time Silicon Valley insider and one of TIME‘s 100 most influential people in AI. In her New York Times bestseller, she exposes how power, profit, and ideology shape today’s industry, and argues that the power to shape the future of AI is in our hands. Journalist Alexandra Samuel interviewed Karen, a fellow Lavin Exclusive Speaker, for her podcast Me + Viv. “She convinced me in our interview that you don’t necessarily have to be an intensive AI user in order to understand how AI works… but if you’re not going to use AI, you need to read Empire of AI so that you can be an informed non-user,” Alex tells us.

The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game, by C. Thi Nguyen

Recommended by Jordan Ellenberg, mathematician and New York Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong

“You wouldn’t expect that careful thinking about games and how they work would produce bracing new insights about how powerful forces reach in and modify our values without our even noticing, and what we can do about it,” writes Jordan Ellenberg, New York Times bestselling author and expert on the math behind AI. “But that’s because you haven’t read C. Thi Nguyen’s The Score. You probably should.” In this forthcoming book (out January 2026), the author examines how scoring systems, incentives, and game-like structures subtly train us to care about specific things. Exploring video games, sports, board games, cooking, gardening, running, and much more, he argues that metrics don’t capture what really matters—only what’s easy to measure. And he asks whether this is the game we really want to play.

Big ideas don’t live in silos.

These books reflect the breadth of thinking that defines today’s leading AI experts—and why their work resonates far beyond Silicon Valley.

Interested in hearing these thinkers unpack ideas like these live, on stage? Get in touch to book these Exclusive Lavin Speakers for your next event!

Empire of AI, by Karen Hao

Recommended by Alexandra Samuel, AI workplace expert and host of Me + Viv

A thrilling look behind the scenes of OpenAI and the biggest tech arms race in history, Empire of AI "instantly struck a cultural nerve" (TIME). Author Karen Hao is a long-time Silicon Valley insider and one of TIME's 100 most influential people in AI. In her New York Times bestseller, she exposes how power, profit, and ideology shape today's industry, and argues that the power to shape the future of AI is in our hands. Journalist Alexandra Samuel interviewed Karen, a fellow Lavin Exclusive Speaker, for her podcast Me + Viv. "She convinced me in our interview that you don't necessarily have to be an intensive AI user in order to understand how AI works… but if you're not going to use AI, you need to read Empire of AI so that you can be an informed non-user," Alex tells us.

The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game, by C. Thi Nguyen

Recommended by Jordan Ellenberg, mathematician and New York Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong

"You wouldn’t expect that careful thinking about games and how they work would produce bracing new insights about how powerful forces reach in and modify our values without our even noticing, and what we can do about it," writes Jordan Ellenberg, New York Times bestselling author and expert on the math behind AI. "But that’s because you haven’t read C. Thi Nguyen’s The Score. You probably should." In this forthcoming book (out January 2026), the author examines how scoring systems, incentives, and game-like structures subtly train us to care about specific things. Exploring video games, sports, board games, cooking, gardening, running, and much more, he argues that metrics don’t capture what really matters—only what’s easy to measure. And he asks whether this is the game we really want to play.