10 Books That Decode Silicon Valley, AI and Hollywood’s Future
A holiday reading syllabus for understanding how we got here and what’s coming — fast
I write The Optionist, a standalone subscription newsletter from Ankler Media, all about the hottest books and other IP ripe for film and TV adaptation. Previously, I covered Jon Landau’s uncensored Hollywood tales. Subscribe here for my weekly list of promising books (new and backlist), long-form journalism, short stories, graphic novels and more.
From Tilly Norwood to Sora 2, Hollywood has hit its AI inflection point — it’s here, it’s taking jobs and there’s no rolling back the clock. Keeping up with the daily firehose of AI and tech news is tough enough (especially if you’re not reading The Ankler’s Reel AI columnist Erik Barmack). But understanding the big picture — who’s gaining power, who’s losing it and what it means for your career — is even harder.
Meanwhile, books about AI and Silicon Valley are multiplying faster than Nvidia’s valuation (bubble? what bubble?). So I’ve pulled together the ones that actually matter — consider me your personal ChatGPT, minus the hallucinations.
This list has it all: policy insiders spelling out Washington’s next moves, management gurus pitching AI-powered “flash teams,” and scientists warning what happens when the machines stop listening to us. And several books zoom out to the macro view Hollywood really needs right now — from Silicon Valley’s sharp right turn, to what the TikTok brawl signals about the future of U.S.-China relations, to the escalating wars over platform monopolies that will shape who controls AI and who gets crushed by it.
Before you take off for the holidays, load up your bedside table or e-reader so you can talk turkey and training data at the dinner table. Enjoy.
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