James Muldoon Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

James Muldoon is a published author and a sociologist. His work is known for exploring the human side of A.I. and other different technologies.

His book Love Machines looks at how different people are able to form relationships with A.I. in the form of intimate partners, friends, therapists, and digital versions of dead loved ones.

He is a reader and an associate professor in Management at the Essex Business School. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute. The broader research that he has done has been able to show the hidden human labor and the global supply chains that are able to make A.I. possible. It also shows how digital work is able to change sectors from ride hailing and food delivery to domestic work and childcare.

Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I. is a 2024 book by James Muldoon. For those who are trying to expand their horizons by reading more nonfiction, this is a great read that will make you feel smarter on a topic that is very hot right now.

This is an exposé that dissolves myths of how A.I. exploits human labor while also putting forth a solid argument for a more equitable digital future. If you’re a fan of authors like Nicole Perlroth or Naomi Klein, this might be the ideal read for you. Check it out and see what you think, and find out more about this book by reading on.

Silicon Valley has given us all the illusion that when it comes to A.I., it’s a technology that is largely without friction that has the potential to bring humanity positive things like wealth and prosperity. It’s a smooth proposal, but underneath it is the reality that there is a human global workforce that makes A.I. possible. This workforce is comprised of millions of people who are often laboring in horrible conditions, and the average person has no idea.

Inside this book, readers get a closer look at the intricate network that is able to keep this exploitative system going and talks more about the untold truth when it comes to A.I. Feeding the Machine is based on hundreds of different interviews and thousands of hours of fieldwork that was carried out over greater than a decade and talks about the lives of the workers who are hidden from view on purpose and the different power structures that could determine their future.

It also gives a voice to the different people that A.I. is exploiting, whether they are artists and writers or the different data annotators, the content moderators, the warehouse workers, and more. Along the way, the author shows how the low paid and frequently dangerous labor that they perform shares a connection to larger histories of colonial, radicalized, and gendered exploitation.

Muldoon frames artificial intelligence as being an extraction machine that is able to feed off of the collective intelligence and effort of humanity as it moves through increasingly larger datasets so that it can power its algorithms. It also goes into what humans need to do in order to make sure that the digital future is more just. If this sounds very interesting to you, grab a copy of Feeding the Machine for yourself.

Love Machines: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Our Relationships is a 2026 book by James Muldoon. There are many great books out there on this topic, but this is one that you’re not going to want to miss out on. Even GQ says that it’s ‘hard to imagine a timelier book right now than this’.

This is a unique journey that takes the reader to the frontier of the human and computer interaction, looking closer at just what ends up happening when it comes to our relationships with each other when A.I. comes into our personal lives. A.I. is taking on all types of roles for people every single day, from lover to friend to therapist. But for the millions of people who are using this tool in new and novel ways, how are these relationships changing or even re-wiring us?

Going further than the people who are choosing to use chat-bots for those everyday tasks, many people are choosing to use them to replace needs or wants in roles in their lives. They are using them as mentors, friends, and as sexual or romantic partners. This was seen in an early-on illustration in the movie “Her”, where the main character ends up falling for an artificial intelligence (voiced by Scarlett Johannson).

Some of these individuals are men who are even wanting to adopt children with their digital partners. Others are turning to companies who offer ‘deathbot’ services that are based off of the voicemails and text messages of the deceased loved one. Still more are turning to therapy bots as a more cost effective treatment for their issues with mental health.

Inside this book, the author takes a closer look at these different forms of love, intimacy, and connection. He pulls upon many different interviews with developers and users from all over the globe, and psychologists, academics, and even chatbots.

As the author makes his way through these interactions, he also stops to ask whether one day they might serve as a replacement for the relationships that human beings have with each other while also showing how the corporations facilitating them (wh ichare unregulated) are attempting to profit from this loneliness economy that is emerging.

The line between the real and the digital is starting to become more blurred than ever, as illustrated by James Muldoon skillfully in this book. Love Machines feels in many ways strange to consider: are we really at this place already?

It seems like just yesterday chatbots appeared on the scene, but now humans are using them in real time with the consequences yet to be seen. This book surveys the next generation of relationships between human and computer, and dives into how they are changing our relationship with technology and each other too. A fascinating read that you don’t want to miss!