Episode · Freakonomics Radio · 2026-10-23
Books mentioned on 692. What Will A.I. Do to (and for) Human Creativity?
Writers, designers, actors, coders, musicians, thinkers — they’re all worried about being replaced by machines. But what if the A.
Stephen Dubner discussed Out Of Control by Kevin Kelly and Co-Existence by Ethan Mollick.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
-
Out Of Control
Out Of Control by Kevin Kelly is a foundational exploration of biology, technology, and social systems, famously arguing that the worlds of human creation and natural evolution share a unified dynamic.
Discussed“In 1994, he published a book called Out of Control. Few years later, before shooting their film The Matrix, the Wowski siblings had Keanu Reeves and other cast members read Out of Control.”
Where to get it
-
Co-Existence
Discussed“In his new book, Coexistence, the next phase of AI, Malik argues that if we want to properly leverage AI's capabilities, we should rely on four robust human advantages, as he calls them.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Plugged Co-Intelligence
“I'm a professor at Wharton where I run the generative AI labs and I wrote the books coexistence and co-intelligence about AI.”
Plugged Co-Existence
“I'm a professor at Wharton where I run the generative AI labs and I wrote the books coexistence and co-intelligence about AI.”
Plugged Co-Existence
“For the new book, I had to come up with a third term. And I came up with conjurer, which looked good on paper cuz the other two were Cwords, but it turned out a hard C and a soft C.”
“The interesting thing is most people who use these systems use them to produce really boring stuff. And it's not necessarily clear that it's because the AI is boring. It's just clear that there's a lot more demand for people to create Star Wars fanfiction or alternate Harry Potter jokes than there is for creative media.”