How to Talk to AI

A BBC ‘BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IN 2026’

Discover how artificial intelligence thinks and reasons, and how we can make the most of their super-human abilities, in the must read new book from the prize-winning technology writer and author of The Dark Net and The People vs Tech.

‘[An] essential read’ Emma Saunders, BBC Culture Reporter

Knowing how to speak to AI – and how not to – is a skill that everyone now needs.

Hundreds of millions of people now talk to AI, such as ChatGPT, every day. They organise their finances and holidays, ask advice, seek therapy and find love – via machines. Almost overnight, chatbots are transforming society, politics and business. This is one of the biggest and fastest technological changes in history.

However, most people still don't really understand how AI works, how to make the most of it – or what the dangers are. As some people use it to turbo-charge their productivity at work, others are falling into dangerous conspiracies, delusions and psychosis.

In How to Talk to AI, award-winning technology writer Jamie Bartlett takes you inside the machine: showing how we can stay in control of our powerful new companions, even as they are changing the way we live, feel, and think.

Written in his accessible style, How to Talk to AI is the essential and empowering guide to help you understand how to make the most of these incredible new technologies, without succumbing to new powers of manipulation and control.

Praise for Jamie Bartlett:

‘This book could not have come at a better moment’ Sunday Times

‘One of the world’s leading experts on the digital revolution’ David Patrikarakos, Literary Review

‘Eye-opening … Bartlett is an informal yet informed guide’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Confident and well-informed’ New Scientist

‘A hell of an achievement... Buy it and read it.’ The Times

‘Fascinating… Jamie Bartlett is an expert guide’ Independent

‘Highly readable’ Financial Times

‘Smart, provoking reportage… Required reading for anyone’ Tom Chatfield, author of Wise Animals: How Technology Has Made Us What We Are