New Release — 2026
About the Book
Artificial intelligence is already making decisions that affect hiring, healthcare, criminal justice, and national security. Most people have no idea how these systems work. Most governments don't have the authority to govern them. And the gap between what AI can do and what anyone can verify it is doing safely is growing wider every month.
Minds We Create cuts through the hype and the jargon to confront what is actually happening. From algorithmic discrimination that denied medical care to real patients, to the 2020 debacle in which the U.S. Department of Defense demanded unrestricted access to an AI system for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, Erik Bernath lays bare the structural forces driving AI development and the governance vacuum surrounding it.
Drawing on philosophy, safety engineering, and the hard lessons of nuclear history, this is the book for anyone who suspects the most consequential technology of our lifetime deserves more than blind trust, and wants to understand it before the window to shape its future closes.