Person
Kevin Roose's book recommendations
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Kevin Roose appears on, in one place — not just one.
Kevin Roose is a San Francisco-based American author and journalist. From 2017 to 2026, he worked for The New York Times as a technology columnist and co-host of the Hard Fork podcast with Casey Newton. In 2026, Roose and Newton announced a new show, Machine Gods. During podcast appearances on shows like The Ezra Klein Show and Big Technology Podcast, Roose recommended and discussed several books related to technology and labor. He recommended David E. Nye's historical book Electrifying America to draw parallels between the historical introduction of electricity and potential societal transformations brought by artificial intelligence. Roose also recommended Kashmir Hill's Your Face Belongs to Us as a compelling book focusing on facial recognition technology and the company Clearview AI, alongside Mary L. Gray and Siddharth Suri's Ghost Work, which examines the low-paid, mundane labor utilized to make artificial intelligence systems function properly. Discussing his own written work, Roose explored Futureproof, detailing a famous labor strike at a General Motors auto plant in the 1970s and outlining rules for how workers can avoid being adversely impacted by automation and algorithms. Additionally, he discussed his book The AGI Chronicles, sharing stories about corporate governance decisions following leadership changes at OpenAI.
Books recommended by Kevin Roose
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Futureproof
Futureproof by Kevin Roose is a practical guide exploring how humans can adapt and thrive in an increasingly automated world.
Discussed“One example I talk about in the book is this famous strike at GM in the 1970s at the Lordstown plant in Ohio. This was supposed to be the most technologically advanced auto plant in the world.”
Where to get it
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America as Second Creation
America as Second Creation by David E.
Recommended“one of them is called electrifying America by David E NY it is a 30-year-old history book about the process by which America got electricity and it has been very interesting to read”
Where to get it
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Ghost Work
Ghost Work by Mary L.
Recommended“There's a great book called Ghost Work by two technologists, Mary Gray and Siddharth Suri. And they talk about all of the kind of low-end, mundane labor, generally very low-paid labor that is used to make AI systems function.”
Where to get it
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Your Face Belongs to Us
Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill is an investigative non-fiction book that examines the rise of facial recognition technology and its profound implications for personal privacy.
Recommended“the other book I'll recommend is your face Belongs To Us by my colleague our colleague at the Times Kashmir Hill which is about the facial recognition AI company clear viiew Ai”
Where to get it
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The AGI Chronicles
The AGI Chronicles by Kevin Roose is a nonfiction book exploring the high-stakes, competitive race among major artificial intelligence labs to build an artificial superintelligence.
Discussed“And yeah, so there's this story in the book where, you know, after Sam is fired as the CEO for those like 5 days, the board is like looking for new CEO candidates. And there there two really interesting opportunities.”
Where to get it
Books by Kevin Roose
Appearances
Other mentions (2: passing, ad reads, own books)
“You know, when I went in to write the book, my my goal was to tell the history of the last 10 years in AI from sort of the moment that the first large language language models arrived on the scene to today.”
“Um a sort of surprising thing, uh which is belief. I think this is something that I realized like halfway through writing this book was that I I thought it was going to be a book about technology, but it was a book about belief.”