We at Upriver Press never use AI for anything. Not even in personal life. We are all fine. FYI. #AI #work

Upriver Press just moved to a new office in downtown Colorado Springs! The historic Exchange Building, beautifully preserved, was built in 1908. We are not far from the US Olympic Committee HQ and we get to see Pikes Peak every day (14,115 feet).

"Why must we treat all technology as if it were foregone, irresistible, like the weather, rather than a choice we make with eyes wide open? Why can’t we see that blithely shrinking the domain and value of human work shrivels humanity itself?" -- J.R. Moehringer in @nytimes.com August 2, 2026 #AI

In his book "Manipulation," Cass Sunstein shows how our lives are permeated with efforts to manipulate what we buy and believe. This reduces our freedom, costs us a lot of money, and undermines our democracy. New book review here: upriverpress.substack.com/p/our-nightm... #AI #businessethics

Our "Nightmare of Consumerism"

Upriver Press Book Review

upriverpress.substack.com

Lawsuits against #AI companies are piling up. One case found that #Anthropic had illegally stored a whopping 7 million pirated books to train Claude. We're seeing a massive takeover and consolidation of the world's intellectual property. Chart from Statista.

Book #publishers have filed a lawsuit against Google contending that the company knowingly disregarded intellectual property rights, illegally using troves of books to train #AI models. Anthropic did the same thing. OpenAI and Meta both face lawsuits. AI businesses lack ethics, which hurts society.

Best ever opening sentence to a book's acknowledgements page: "In the best capitalist tradition, this book has been built on the backs of many underpaid and abused workers." (In The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, 2003.) #publishing #books

A federal judge just finalized a ruling against #AI company Anthropic for stealing 500,000 #books. The Association of American Publishers called the ruling "an important victory ... hold big tech accountable for its unscrupulous appropriation of intellectual and creative properties." #publishing

There is an important article in @theatlantic.com titled The End of Reading Is Here. Since the TV age started in the 1950s, "The decline of reading seems to be ushering in a less rational ... mode of thinking. It's difficult to see any advantages in that." #medialiteracy #reading #criticalthinking

Social Security faces insolvency in 2032. Members of Congress view #SocialSecurity as the "third rail" of politics, so they delay reforms. Upriver Press authors Dr. John Turner and Serena McCarthy provide three simple ways that #Congress can move forward. www.upriverpress.com/uprivercurrent

The Upriver Current — Upriver Press

Substantive articles and features about our books and current affairs, and interviews with Upriver Press authors.

upriverpress.com

These guys don't like it when someone steals their intellectual property, but they have no problem stealing the intellectual property of authors, publishers, musicians, photographers ...

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 4w ago

Breaking News: Apple sued OpenAI, accusing the company of stealing secrets about products still in development. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/t...

In our AI age of fakery, no one knows what is factual or fake. The US World Cup team, hearing that FIFA allowed a star player to play against Belgium said, “I think a lot of us thought it was AI at first ... We weren’t sure if it was true or not." www.nytimes.com/athletic/742... #AI #medialiteracy

How the world, including President Trump, reacted to Balogun's ban reprieve

nytimes.com

Will #AI take your job? Princeton economist Markus Brunnermeier hosts Luis Garicano (London School of Economics) about his new Upriver Press book "Messy Jobs: The Work That AI Cannot Reach." This book will help you think clearly about the future of #careers. www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Ie...

Our new #bookreview focuses on the photography of Lewis Hine, who documented the 1.7 million children exploited by companies in the early 1900s. A great book published by @princetonupress.bsky.social upriverpress.substack.com/p/revealing-...

Revealing the Dignity of Exploited Children

Upriver Press Book Review

upriverpress.substack.com

The @nytimes.com reports that US #AI companies are upset that Chinese "developers have illicitly leveraged American technology" (i.e., stolen their intellectual property). Funny how the same US companies don't worry about stealing the IP of thousands of #authors and #publishers and #musicians and...

"The love of money and the love of learning rarely meet." -- English metaphysical poet George Herbert (1593-1633) #books #reading #education

There's a vital election coming in November. Media literacy is more important than ever, especially in the age of #AI fakery and manipulation. Here's a book that can help. www.upriverpress.com/home/overcom... #medialiteracy #elections #journalism

"This is simply a must-read book if you are interested in the future of work in the age of AI." -- Alex Imas, director of AGI economics at Google DeepMind. #AI #work #economics www.upriverpress.com/home/messy-j...

Bookstores are helping to reduce loneliness. Sarah Arnold at @parnassusbooks.bsky.social says, “Technology and social media promised to bring us together, but more often it feels like they siphon each of us into a solitary lifestyle, and it’s hurting us.” lithub.com/a-bookstore-... #reading #books

A Bookstore Boom in a Time of Literacy Decline

I was standing in line at Chaucer’s Books, my local indie, when it occurred to me that the line was longer than usual. This has been happening regularly enough that I’ve stopped being s…

lithub.com

While everyone focuses on how #AI might improve productivity, Alison Pugh, aUniversity of Virginia professor, she says we are constructing a “social architecture” around technological efficiency rather than human well-being. upriverpress.substack.com/p/the-datafi... #books #work

The Datafication of People

Upriver Press Book Review

upriverpress.substack.com

"When Amazon launched in 1994, there were more than 5,000 bookstores in the US. By 2019, that had dropped to 1,887 stores. Now there are over 3,300!" @bookshop.org has sent almost $50 million dollars to local bookstores. Your support of local #bookstores matters!

Starting today @bookshop.org is offering free shipping (through June 26). This fantastic company is a B-Corp that has donated nearly $50 million to local bookstores. We encourage readers to avoid Amazon. There are better options for society. #books #reading #bookstores

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison says this about our new book "Messy Jobs": "There is a lot of woolly thinking on the topic of #AI and #jobs. This excellent book is by far the most economically literate account." www.upriverpress.com/home/messy-j... #work #careers #economics

Messy Jobs: The Work That AI Cannot Reach — Upriver Press

Apocalyptic predictions that AI will eliminate millions of jobs have caused widespread fear. When people hear that AI can write, code, and diagnose, they often jump to a scary conclusion: If machines ...

upriverpress.com

In 1642, Blaise Pascal pioneered calculating machines (called Pascalines). A prescient Pascal quote relevant to AI: "The [calculating machine] produces effects closer to thought than anything done by animals, but it does nothing to justify the assertion that it has a will like the animals." #AI

Harvard Business School professor Raffaella Sadun says this about our new book "Messy Jobs": "A rigorous, original, and engaging account of how AI will reshape organizations and labor markets, and what it will take to thrive in them." www.upriverpress.com/home/messy-j... #AI #work #economics

Messy Jobs: The Work That AI Cannot Reach — Upriver Press

Apocalyptic predictions that AI will eliminate millions of jobs have caused widespread fear. When people hear that AI can write, code, and diagnose, they often jump to a scary conclusion: If machines ...

upriverpress.com

The Pope recently uploaded some theology about the ethics of AI. A reminder that technology ethics should matter. upriverpress.substack.com/p/the-pope-u... #AI #ethics #economics #work

The Pope Uploads Theology to the AI Cloud

Upriver Press Book Review

upriverpress.substack.com

Pope on #AI: If we allow "the logic of efficiency, control, and profit alone shape personal, social, and economic decisions," we risk "reducing creation to an object of exploitation and human beings to mere cogs in a system driven to ever greater efficiency." www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

The new Upriver Press book "Messy Jobs: The Work That AI Cannot Reach" was just featured in The Atlantic. Read the article here: www.theatlantic.com/economy/2026... #AI #jobs #work #books #economics

Three Ways to Think About AI and Jobs

Whether automation will make human workers obsolete depends on more than just how smart the AI is.

theatlantic.com

Nobel Prize-winning economist Bengt Holmström says this about the new Upriver Press book "Messy Jobs." "The authors use simple, powerful logic to illuminate how AI will reshape work and organizations." www.upriverpress.com/home/messy-j... #AI #work #economics #business

Messy Jobs: The Work That AI Cannot Reach — Upriver Press

Apocalyptic predictions that AI will eliminate millions of jobs have caused widespread fear. When people hear that AI can write, code, and diagnose, they often jump to a scary conclusion: If machines ...

upriverpress.com

The documentary "Turn Every Page" is an inspiring portrayal of a 50-year friendship between author Robert Caro and editor Robert Gottlieb. As #AI invades the #publishing industry, one tragic loss could be meaningful friendships. Hope that does not happen. www.sonypictures.com/movies/turne...