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The cover of Robot Proof

Robot Proof

Vivienne Ming, 2026

A human centered argument for building people, organizations, and institutions that can thrive alongside artificial intelligence by cultivating meta learning, purpose, creativity, and productive collaboration with machines.

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8 parts, about 17 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Argues that no skill is safe from AI, and that lasting value lies in capacities for exploring problems nobody has framed yet
  • Shows how to use AI as a critic and sparring partner rather than an answer machine, for yourself and your children
  • Draws on the author's own work building AI for hiring, education and diabetes care, including where it failed

Who it is for

  • Workers worried their job will be automated
  • Parents and teachers raising children alongside AI
  • Managers deciding whether to replace or develop staff

What the summary covers

  1. No Skill Is Robot Proof2 min
  2. What Machines Know and Humans Explore2 min
  3. Power, Bias, and an AI Constitution2 min
  4. The Chasm and the Automation Myths2 min
  5. Deprofessionalization and Creative Complementarity2 min
  6. Building Better People2 min
  7. Practices for Children and Adults2 min
  8. From Innovative Teams to a Human Trust3 min

Recommended by

  • Paul DonovanChief Economist at UBS Global Wealth Management
    With a beguiling combination of direct language and humor, Vivienne Ming dismantles the foundations of both utopian and dystopian AI myths.
  • Paul DonovanChief Economist at UBS Global Wealth Management
    With a beguiling combination of direct language and humor, Vivienne Ming dismantles the foundations of both utopian and dystopian AI myths.

About the author

  • Vivienne MingTheoretical neuroscientist who works on artificial intelligence
    • Theoretical neuroscientist, entrepreneur and self described professional mad scientist
    • Cofounder and Executive Chair of The Human Trust, a nonprofit building AI foundation models
    • Work featured in the Financial Times, The Atlantic and The New York Times
    • Returned to UC San Diego and took a BS with honors in cognitive neuroscience in 2000
    • MS in 2003 and PhD in Psychology in 2006 at Carnegie Mellon University
    • Postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford and UC Berkeley
    • Founded with others the think tank Socos on AI, neuroscience and education reform
    • Named to the BBC 100 Women list in 2017

Read it alongside

  • Goes deeperPeak

    Vivienne Ming argues that ability is not fixed and grows through extended, effortful development. Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool show how: sustained training physically changes the brain, as in trainee London taxi drivers, with larger effects for early starters among musicians.

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