“Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Power,” by Rajiv Malhotra, is an interesting book worth checking out. It has two parts. The first discusses four aspects of power, presented as battles for jobs, world domination, agency and self, and how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact each. The second half applies the first to what the author sees is happening in India. A lot is fuzzy and his opinions, but there is enough meat there to be worth taking the time.

Chapter 1 is an overview of AI and starts, unfortunately, with equating machine learning (ML) and AI only with deep learning. While I use a wider definition, as displayed in my forbes.com column, I can understand a novice’s confusion. As deep learning is the main way that modern AI will impact the four areas of power Mr. Malhotra covers, I can let that slide.

One problem, however, is his description of big data as a “foundational concept of AI.” Nope. I have enough problems with the term “big data”, but it’s not vaguely a basic concept of AI. It’s just a lot of data. Sure, large amounts are used to understand societal issues and consumer preferences, but smaller amounts of data are being used to train more focused ML systems.

His chapters on jobs and world domination are the best though out. I admit bias on the first, because he agrees with what I’ve been saying for a while, that jobs will clearly go away. This isn’t another industrial advance, where workers can move from one manufacturing floor to another. This is a sea change in what computers can do and will replace far more jobs than it creates. This needs to be better understood by policy makers.

Many in the US and Europe are waking up to the real question of competitiveness with China on all aspects, political, economic, and more. It’s no surprise that an Indian understands and explains the threat very well. Those two nations, the largest by population, have been in conflict a long time. As someone with personal experience in both India and the United States, he clearly discusses the advantages a totalitarian nation has in comparison to democratic nations when wanting to rapidly change direction. He describes Chinese adoption of AI in full range of national competition on the international stage.

However, the chapter isn’t only about competition between nations. He references just how rich and powerful a few companies and people are today. As he pointed out, “in one year, Google received more than 10,000 requests from the US government to turn over private user information, and it decided to comply 93 times.” Regardless of which side of the data privacy issue you stand, it shouldn’t be up to a company. Plus, if Google ignores the US, what chance do smaller nations have?

The third and fourth areas of power he discusses are the fuzziest, with agency being more structured and realistic than self. In “The Battle for Agency”, the author describe the potential risk of handing more and more of our own responsibilities to machines. It’s especially important because there’s still the question of who controls and regulates the machines, businesses or government, and if either is a good thing. He goes a bit far with “digital slavery”, but the risk of the few even better manipulating the many is well described.

“The Battle for Self” is the weakest chapter. It is too metaphysical for my taste, implying there’s something good about sticking with belief systems created before we had science to evaluate the world in a less biased manner (note “less”, science is often abused). You can have concepts of social justice and ethical behavior by looking at what we see works best in the world. That’s all I’ll say rather than get into a much more robust yet tangential discussion on this subject.

The second half of this book is all about how the first half applies to India. It’s very interesting to read. There are some parallels to what is happening to many nations, but the clear and well written focus on India is why this isn’t in my main column. The editors want us to focus on the US, and this isn’t. However, there are great lessons to be seen for anything interested in the world.

It’s a very interesting book, worth reading. I don’t have to agree with everything to say that. “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Power” is a thoughtful person’s take on AI and its growing impact on human society.