AI races, bestiaries and the last few days: Our reading list for winter 2024

The time has come: The Christmas markets are open, Mariah Carey has thawed again and with a bit of luck, there will soon be a book or two under the Christmas tree. 🎄 That naturally raises the question of the right read to give away — and with this in mind, we have curated five books for you that should not be missing this winter. 😉

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Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT, and the Race that Will Change the World by Parmy Olson

ChatGPT and comparable LLMs may be the defining invention of our time. An AI, advanced enough, often seems more helpful — perhaps even more human — than some customer service and more useful than general Google search. For many, this form of artificial intelligence has not only become part of our everyday lives, but is also a cause for concern: No one knows exactly where the journey is headed, not least because of its less transparent algorithm. However, it is clear that deep learning is far from reaching its zenith. Claude, ChatGPT, PalM and Co. are constantly learning every day, getting that little bit better and sitting together in a metaphorical classroom fighting for the best grade.

A foreseeable rivalry, as Parmy Olson shows, because it is by no means new. Supremacy tells the story of the duel that OpenAI and DeepMind gave and continue to do in the AI arena, on their way to bring today's LLM's into the mainstream. Olson himself maintains a constant critical distance: This is not a story of victory or an elogue about the respective achievements of the opponents, it is also a reminder of the risky consequences of a Tech monopolies, which could arise as a result. To one of the most powerful inventions of our time — and one that is difficult to control.

Olson joins Supremacy One point in particular is clear: That AI is not only humanity's technological miracle assistance, but also a racing business. With all due respect, this is an important counterposition that AI deserves, insofar as we collectively want to make the best possible use of the benefits of this technology.

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Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures by Katherine Rundell

Seahorses are life partners and dance together every morning, the American forest frog survives the winter by freezing itself and lemurs are the Amazons of wild life, together in matriarchal order and led by an alpha female. Our planet is littered with extraordinary organisms, which have adapted to local conditions in a variety of ways.

Katherine Rundell offers us in Vanishing Treasures A compact bestiary of some of the most amazing creatures that populate the earth. This is obviously a passionate text. Rundell shows more than her own compassion for the various animals; she cultivates the same standards with the respective readers — because unfortunately, every species presented is just as threatened with extinction. Vanishing Creatures is therefore an appeal that not only allows us to fall in love with the animals presented. It also shows us the fragility of these organisms, which, despite all their adaptability, are being overtaken by humans and climate change. It's an important issue.

As is well known, we live in turbulent times. It is hard to blame the resulting world pain. Rundell does it with Vanishing Treasures Accordingly, to uncover two beautiful truths in one fell swoop, which we are all too happy to forget: That the world is nonetheless a truly amazing place and that humans are just one of many creatures that rely on its soil. The only trick is to take responsibility for this.

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Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success by Russ Büttner, Susanne Craig

We get it: People don't really like to discuss Donald Trump, but as one of the most important figures of our time, you somehow have to. Especially up to date.

One of the best contributions David Barstow, Susanne Craig and Russ Büttner probably wrote on the subject, in which the investigative journalists revealed the financial history of the incoming president for the New York Times. A contribution good enough that they were awarded the Pulitzer Prize and have now put this very topic on paper in detail.

Lucky Loser Not only does Trump decipher the narrative of the hard-working businessman, who, according to his own statement, really didn't have it easy — including the lie that they had built up a multi-million dollar business with their father's little money. It shows one thing in particular: That Trump often Although he was more fortunate than sane, he also knew how to translate this into an image that now maneuvered him into the White House for the second time. An elaborate research that covers over 20 years and illustrates the rise and fall and rise and fall and eventual rise of Donald Trump. An important text for our current affairs.

Great read for the obligatory political discussion at Christmas, by the way — it'll be fun.

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Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics by Olufumi O. Taíwò

Identity politics — i.e. political action based on ethnicity, social status, sexuality, nationality and the like — is an important concern of our time. At school, at work, online and in public discourse — as a society, we are striving in many places to increase awareness of various life experiences. As a result, this unfortunately also means that identity politics is becoming a buzzword. And that is one that is often exploited under a certain measure of virtue signaling — the display of morally positive values without necessarily living them out — also to marginalize collective interests.

Elite Capture On the one hand, makes an argument as to the extent to which the concept of identity politics has its roots in Black Feminist Combahee River Collective alienated and, on the other hand, that the concept of identity politics is still not the problem in question. Actual differences would not be overcome with attention and representation, when they also have their benefits, but with a critical redistribution of social power structures and resources. This is also an individual responsibility and is necessary to overcome simple binaries.

A quite academic but inspiring text on one of the relevant issues of our time.

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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

As is well known, December is more than the beautiful Christmas season that accompanies it. It marks the end of the year, New Year's Eve — the end of all experiences of the last 365 days. Kazuo Ishiguro may have written the ideal book for just this.

Stevens spent his entire life as a butler in Darlington Hall. An existence on duty, something else is not familiar to him — and the vacation he takes in 1956 to visit an old work colleague is therefore a novelty for him. On his journey, the highly loyal butler finds the opportunity to look at his own life in retrospective for the first time — and thus he not only meditates on everything that has happened so far, but also the few years that will still blossom for him; The Remains of the Day.

Self-reflection is a process in fractals: the same thing in different units of measurement. A rock, for example, is just a small mountain. Whether we, like Butler Stevens, review our lives, the past year on New Year's Eve, or just the events of the day — the process remains the same. As Ishiguro puts it so nicely:

“The evening's the best part of the day. You've done your day's work. Now you can put your feet up and enjoy it.”

There is something fundamentally human in this: Self-reflection is a visualization of our current situation, how far we have come over time and the calculated risks that await us in the future. The Remains of the Day is therefore more than just a conclusion, it is also an invitation to leave your own head for a brief moment, yourself as alien to look at and to look at your own work. To give yourself space to be proud for once in a while. With this wish, we are happy to release you into next year, where we will certainly see you again.

With this in mind, enjoy the holidays and a few quiet hours with a good book. We hope you enjoy reading. 😊