On the Shelf: Insider economics, AI horizons, geopolitics, and human resiliency

Kiran Karnik Speaking Tiger Books Pp 304, Rs 699 What might India become in a world where the certainties of yesterday no longer hold? For Kiran Karnik, the answer begins with taking both the country’s possibilities and its problems seriously. Few writers can bring to the questions facing India the breadth of experience that Karnik has acquired over a lifetime at the forefront of technological and institutional change.

He draws on that experience to consider the forces reshaping our world. Co-Existence Ethan Mollick Penguin Random House Pp 256, Rs 1,299 We are entering a new era. AI systems can already outperform humans in some domains while failing spectacularly in others. They can act as collaborators, researchers, strategists and creators… yet they can also produce falsehoods, generate convincing nonsense and fail unpredictably.

The challenge is no longer simply adopting new technology. Ethan Mollick argues that the future of AI will not be defined by replacement, but by interaction. Edited by writers Jeet Thayil and Pascalle Burton, the list of contributors includes artists on the ground in Gaza, as well prize-winning writers from India, Australia, Europe and the US. The Land of Monsoons and Martyrs Salil Tripathi Aleph Book Company Pp 544, Rs 1,299 Between March and December 1971, the Pakistani army committed atrocities on an unprecedented scale in the country’s eastern wing.

From that brutal violence, Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation, but the wounds have continued to fester. In this revised and updated edition, Salil Tripathi travels the length and breadth of the country, probing the trauma through interviews with hundreds of Bangladeshis.