About The Collision
AI is not just changing what we do. It is changing who we are as thinkers. How do we get the best out of AI without making ourselves worse?
AI promises effortless solutions and endless capacity. But the collision of human intelligence and machine intelligence has also started to create two diverging groups: those who use AI to think better and those who use AI instead of thinking. What if the accessibility of a tool this fast, creative, and smart is eroding our ability to think for ourselves?
Through lucid storytelling and cutting-edge research, including his own widely discussed work and examples from workers across industries who are struggling and succeeding with AI, MIT professor Eric C. So reveals the science behind the way AI is reshaping our brains—and offers practical guidance for wielding these powerful tools without letting our minds atrophy: Value the struggle of human effort. Know who you are without AI. Reinvest the cognitive surplus AI creates. Treat AI as a cognitive trainer, not a replacement.
Rich with takeaways for professionals, parents, and everyone trying to understand AI's perils and promise, The Collision is an essential guide for using AI without losing yourself.
What People Are Saying About The Collision
"A fascinating deep dive into what AI does to us―and why. Don't let AI take over the tasks previously performed by your brain. Use AI to build new things, to create jobs, to improve the condition of humanity. Read this book to figure out how to make that happen." ― Simon Johnson, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and coauthor of Power and Progress
"A powerful must-read for AI adopters." ― Steve Preston, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International
"A vital roadmap for preserving human judgment in the age of machine intelligence." ― Sinan Aral, David Austin Professor of Management, Marketing, IT and Data Science at MIT
"Rigorous, timely, and impossible to ignore. The Collision is that rare book that combines serious behavioral science with genuine empathy for its reader. Eric C. So has written the definitive guide for our times." ― Sangeet Paul Choudary, author of Reshuffle, winner of the 2025 Thinkers50 Strategy Award, and coauthor of Platform Revolution.
About Eric So
Eric So is the Sloan Distinguished Professor of Global Economics and Behavioral Science at MIT Sloan and the research lead for the IDE's AI in Financial Markets and Decision-Making. Much of So's current work is in applied AI, examining both sides of the human-machine interface, including how people interpret and respond to AI advice and how AI systems themselves develop emergent behaviors when deployed in real-world organizational settings.