Obsolete
The AI Industry's Trillion Dollar Race to Replace You—and How to Stop It
Pre-orders go out May 2026 • Nation Books
Is AI a bubble or humanity's last invention? An existing harm or existential threat? Obsolete cuts through the hype and false binaries to answer all the AI questions you have, while raising some you probably aren't prepared for.
Pre-order Now
Obsolete is available for pre-order directly from the publisher at 15% off. Pre-ordering is the single most helpful thing you can do. Early orders count toward first-week sales (which matters for bestseller lists), signal to bookstores how many copies to stock, and give the publisher data to invest more in promotion.
Interested in a bulk order? Email bulk@obsoletebook.org.
Early Praise
"The best book I've read on AI. It's supremely timely, it takes no prisoners, and Sam Altman would hate it."
Luke Kemp, author of Goliath's Curse
About the Book
The richest companies in history are racing to build a machine that replaces human labor—all of it. And, as this provocative new book insists, the only surefire way they won't succeed is if we stop them.
Many today don't get further than seeing AI as a boondoggle—a new shiny object for techno-capitalists to sink their cash into as we barrel toward climate disaster. Obsolete takes those concerns seriously, but implores us to keep our eye on the ball: the attempt to render you obsolete.
The scale of their project has no real precedent. What we think of as big—the Gilded Age monopolies, the Manhattan Project, the Apollo program—doesn't even come close to capturing its size. Almost none of us want this vast transformation to succeed. Yet we're letting it proceed virtually unabated. Why? Because we don't know it's happening, we don't believe it will work, or we don't think we can stop it. Obsolete takes on all three.
AI expert and journalist Garrison Lovely's debut is a refreshing reset on an AI debate where basically everyone is getting some big things wrong. With deep access to top researchers, advocates, and industry insiders, Obsolete offers a new way to think about the technology and a plan for deciding its future democratically.
How You Can Help
Books like this succeed because of the people who rally around them. If you believe in what Obsolete is trying to do and want to go the extra mile, here are some ways you can help.
About the Author
