Artificial intelligence is no longer confined to science fiction. It recommends what we watch, curates what we read, and even drafts what we write. Yet for all its influence, AI remains a mystery to many of us. How does it really work? And what happens when we place more and more of our lives in the hands of machines that “think”?

Physicist and AI researcher Inga Strümke pulls back the curtain on the most transformative technology of our time in this captivating introduction to artificial intelligence. Writing for curious minds from all backgrounds, she traces the history of AI from early chess-playing machines to modern neural networks and language models. Along the way, she explains the principles behind machine learning with a balance of clarity and depth. Strümke explores the promise of AI breakthroughs like AlphaFold, which cracked one of biology’s greatest puzzles—and spotlights the risks of biased decision-making, misinformation, and autonomous systems that sometimes fail with deadly consequences. She raises urgent questions about ethics, responsibility, and regulation: Who is accountable when AI systems make mistakes? How do we prevent algorithms from reinforcing prejudice? And how do we ensure that AI serves humanity’s highest aspirations rather than its narrowest interests?

Winner of the Brage Prize for Norwegian nonfiction, Machines That Think is an essential guide to artificial intelligence—and a call to shape the future before it shapes us.