AI essaysworth readingtwice.
A printed anthology of essays that cut through the hype and the panic so you can form your own point of view.
A book for people who need to think clearly about AI.
AI is moving faster than our shared ability to interpret it. Most writing about it tries to do one of two things: convince you everything is fine, or convince you we're doomed. We didn't want either.
This printed anthology aims to offer our readers a reflection pause. We present a curated collection of essays from the ΦAI (Pron. Phi and AI) collective, created to invite you to sit longer with ideas that matter. The essays deal with what AI does to us, not what AI does in general and explore the questions that stayed with us in 2025, the year AI settled into our lives.
Our promise is simple: if you read this, you should think more broadly—and maybe clearly—about AI than when you started.
That's the bar.
Multidisciplinary essays across four thematic clusters
The connective tissue is our multidisciplinary stance.
We draw from philosophy, anthropology, economics, sociology, physics, evolutionary studies, neuroscience, and political theory, and interweave them into conversation with technology in ways that are still rare.
You'll read about:
Thinking & Being
How AI reshapes our understanding of thought, selfhood, creativity, and what it means to have awareness.
Making & Meaning
Craft, human authenticity, and the future of work in a world where prediction machines challenge all social and economic aspects of humankind.
Power & Dialectics
Who decides, who benefits, and how AI reshuffles labour, capital, and established power structures.
More than Human
Questions of agency, otherness, and how we might reassess our positioning within collective, emergent intelligent ecosystems and cyberspaces.
A glimpse inside the writing.
Autonomy is the capacity for self governance and decision making, and it depends fundamentally on our ability to think for ourselves. Philosophers from Aristotle to contemporary thinkers have argued that this capacity for rational thought makes us distinctly human. Martha Nussbaum captures this perfectly in Not for Profit:
"Our mind does not gain true freedom by acquiring materials for knowledge and possessing other people's ideas but by forming its own standards of judgement and producing its own thoughts."
Thinking is an exertion of free will, an exercise of liberty. But thinking is difficult and uncomfortable, which explains these tools' seductive appeal. The erosion happens through three interconnected mechanisms that exploit our cognitive vulnerabilities.
Maria Weaver
Thinking is hard, AI makes it easy — does it?
01 / 13
Why a printed anthology?
Honestly? Because we love beautiful books.
We wanted something we could gift to people we care about, and keep on our shelves when we're older. We want to take a pulse of the current moment in time and immortalise it on printed paper, as we've done for centuries now.
Beyond that, reading on paper is simply different. No notifications. No feed. No algorithm quietly steering your attention away mid-sentence. We think some ideas need friction and the pages help you ruminate.
This book is an invitation to read without interference and ruminate while at it.
A global collective of multidisciplinary thinkers.
This anthology brings together writers from different disciplines, countries, and professional backgrounds. Some work in academia, some in industry, some between the two. They all share the commitment to thinking carefully about AI.
Each essay reflects the author's own perspective and expertise, but the collection was edited to hold together as a conversation, not a series of disconnected takes.
Camila Lombana-Diaz
Camila Lombana Díaz is a Colombian-born AI ethics expert and researcher at SAP, where she helped design the company’s global AI ethics framework and co-authored the SAP AI Ethics Handbook and Global AI Ethics Policy. Recognized among the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™, she focuses on aligning AI with human rights and societal values. Her publications include a chapter in Human-Centered AI (Springer) and a UN Human Rights Council whitepaper. Camila’s research, co-created with Indigenous communities in Colombia, emphasizes pluriversal AI, reflecting on environmental impacts and emerging rights such as the right to disconnect.
David Schmidt
David Schmidt studied Mathematics and Sociology, and has worked in the field of machine learning and product management. Having founded a healthcare startup and worked in e-commerce and fintech, he regularly ponders and publishes on the intersection of technology, power, and community. Soul of a New Machine, the most recent project by David, examines dominant ideologies in Silicon Valley, transhumanism, and community-driven alternatives. The eponymous photographic series is presented in an exhibition in Berlin-Kreuzberg through March 2026.
Elsa Donnat
Elsa is a legal scholar and AI governance researcher working at the intersection of law, AI safety, and institutional design. With a background in EU AI policy and experience across the AI ethics and safety communities, she examines how our oldest institutions and assumptions might adapt to our newest technologies. Her writing brings perspectives from legal philosophy, political economy, and critical theory to questions about agency, power, and meaning in an age of increasingly autonomous systems.
Jáchym Fibír
Jáchym Fibír is a psychedelic researcher and entrepreneur in AI-driven drug discovery who now prototypes quantum-inspired AI architectures aimed at reducing the gap between human and machine cognition. Drawing on his expertise spanning neuropharmacology, psychedelics and machine learning, Jáchym explores neglected frontiers - machine consciousness, sentience, and biological alignment. His vision intertwines theoretical depth with pragmatic innovation, aiming to guide AI toward meaningful symbiosis with humanity.
Karin García
Karin García is the founding editor of ΦAI. A writer, strategist, and former startup operator, she works at the intersection of AI, product, and philosophy. With a background in startups and a decade spent guiding founders through moments of complexity, she now creates tools, workshops, and publications that help people understand and shape the future of AI. She brings a grounded, interdisciplinary perspective to the conversation at the edge of technology and humanity.
Katalina Hernández
Katalina Hernández is a Legal & AI governance specialist focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence, autonomy, and digital rights. With a background in data protection and a deep interest in interpretability and alignment, her writing explores how emerging AI systems reshape agency, identity, and the regulatory landscape. She contributes regularly to conversations on AI safety, with work spanning the philosophical, the political, and the deeply personal. At PhilAI, she writes to stress-test assumptions: about machines, about humans, and the uncertain space in between.
Kyle Henri
Kyle Henry is a humane technology entrepreneur and information age philosopher with passions for human wellbeing and challenging dominant narratives and paradigms. Kyle is CEO/CoFounder of Tune Health, a mission-driven company for “food AI as medicine”, serving the nutrition for surgery market. Kyle’s writing focuses on discernment in the “age of noise”, as seen in his Substack newsletters: Heretic School and the Philosophy of Information. When he’s not being dad of 5, you’ll find him attending men’s groups focused on emotional wellbeing, hiking the public lands of Oregon, or mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs who want to use technology for good.
Maria Weaver
Maria Weaver is a learning and development leader focused on helping companies grow by building better ways to learn at work. She’s led high-impact programs at Shopify, General Assembly, and Udemy - designing experiences that strengthen leadership and technical skills, improve retention and morale, and support real business outcomes. Her work is grounded in adult learning theory, instructional design, and a belief that curiosity is one of the most powerful tools a company can cultivate.
Maritza Bonano
Maritza Bonano is a product leader and operator with 13+ years of experience shaping digital products across Berlin’s startup ecosystem—from early-stage ventures to corporate innovation labs. As co-founder of ChangePath, an AI-powered platform helping Millennials and Gen Z navigate their quarter-life crisis, she’s on a mission to make career decisions more human, purposeful, and data-driven. Rooted in a belief that technology should elevate rather than replace us, Maritza focuses on building tools that empower self-discovery and meaningful work. She is passionate about making AI not only intelligent, but ethical and empathetic. A strong advocate for DE&I, she’s committed to designing systems that break harmful cycles instead of repeating them.
Mishka Nemes
Mishka Nemes is a researcher working at the intersection of AI ethics, responsible AI implementation in practice and AI skills. She has extensive experience at establishing and leading on collaborations between academia, government and industry, and across most sectors impacted by AI adoption. She is particularly fascinated by the concept of intelligence, whether natural, artificial, collective, emergent or otherwise, and she enjoys exploring innovation ideas and ideologies. Right now, Mishka is focused on asking good questions and thus her contributions at PhiAI - she wants to offer a deliberation platform where readers can help fine tune her AI meanderings.
Olga Troeger
Olga Johanna Tröger Peña is a Colombian-German entrepreneur, operational excellence expert, and technoethics advocate. She is the Founder & CEO of Rayol AI Solutions and Tröger Peña International Consulting, and Co-lead of the AI Ethics Action Hub. Formerly a driving force behind AIQ Europe’s ethical direction, Olga now helps organizations embed AI responsibly, aligning technology with transparency, human rights, and operational integrity. Certified in Ethics of AI (LSE), she advocates for inclusive, values-driven digital transformation with a strong focus on societal impact and AI literacy.
Promit Ray
Promit Ray is a Berlin-based data scientist, AI strategist, and writer exploring the intersection of AI, ethics, and human cognition. As Head of Data Science at CLADE, he leads analytics in chemometrics and bioinformatics. With a PhD in quantum chemistry, he transitioned from academic research to applying machine learning in healthcare and biotech. He advocates for ethical, human-centered AI. His writing critiques generative AI’s societal impact, blending scientific insight with cultural analysis. Through consulting and public speaking, he challenges mainstream AI narratives, emphasizing intelligence as effortful, ethical, and deeply contextual.
Roshan Melwani
Roshan Melwani is an interdisciplinary thinker and writer at the intersection of human rights, AI governance and psychotherapy. Shaped by a life between worlds, Roshan explores what anchors us - and what unravels us - in a complex, uncertain and accelerating world. Through writing, he seeks to understand how we might design and govern technology, without losing the parts that make us human. He has worked in applied AI research, refugee law and public policy – contributing to initiatives at UNHCR, The Migration Observatory and Climate Policy Radar. In his spare time, Roshan enjoys long runs, cooking improvised meals, and browsing through bookstores in search of unexpected treasures.
Sebastian Osorno
Trained as a social scientist, I’ve become a generalist by conviction and necessity. Nonconformity and curiosity have led me through diverse roles: teacher, researcher, photographer, audiovisual editor, government contractor, entrepreneur, startup founder, consultant for NGOs and businesses, digital project manager, and policy advisor. I’ve worked across disciplines—strategy, operations, product, UX, education—always guided by one throughline: the power of narrative. I believe imagining better realities, especially for the vulnerable, is not optional. In an age mediated by machines, envisioning the future remains one of the most human things we can do.
Veronica Zora Kirin
Veronica Zora Kirin is the founder of Asterisk Women’s Health, cofounder of Anodyne Magazine, and founder of GreenCup Digital. She is also an anthropologist studying paradigm shifts, the author of the award-winning book “Stories of Elders,” and has presented her research at two TEDx events. Kirin has been named a Forbes NEXT 1,000 Entrepreneur, one of GO Magazine’s “100 Women We Love,” and a BEQ 40 LGBTQ Leader Under 40.
(Full contributor bios available in the book.)
About ΦAI
ΦAI is an online magazine at the intersection of the humanities and technology, run as a writers' collective. We examine the ethical, social, and existential questions raised by AI's rapid development, with clarity, integrity, and care.
Our tagline is also our ethic:
AI, Meaningfully.
Our Editorial Commitments
Interdisciplinary thinking beats isolated ideas
Long-term perspective beats hot reactions
Clarity beats cleverness
No alarmism. No tutorials. No hype.
Frequently Asked
Summer 2026. If anything changes, we'll tell you.
Yes. If you change your mind before shipping, we'll refund the pre-order. No refunds after printing.
Yes and no. All essays are available on our Substack, but not in this curated, edited, and illustrated form.
If you're looking for tool tutorials, prompt packs, or daily model-release commentary, this isn't that.
Yes. Email hello@phiand.ai for bulk options.