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Nonfiction · Artificial intelligence

Straight answers about AI, for people who aren't engineers.

Most writing about artificial intelligence is either marketing or jargon, and neither one helps you decide what to actually do. These books take the opposite approach: name the tool, say what it costs, explain what it is genuinely good for, and cite the source.

Which AI should I use? See the books

Every number is attributed

Salary figures name their source. Where sources disagree, the disagreement is on the page rather than hidden behind the flattering number.

No shortcuts sold

Nothing here promises that an AI tool will make you rich or replace a skill you don't have. The useful claim is smaller and more honest than that.

Written to be finished

Short chapters, plain sentences, and a clear answer to the question you opened the book with. You should not need a glossary.

Prices are deliberately not listed here, because they change often enough that a web page will be lying to you within a month. The book gives the price for each assistant with the source and the date it was checked.

The books

Two guides, both on Kindle

Cover of Choose Your AI by Avery Irwin, showing an illustrated map with doorways labelled ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Le Chat and Grok.

Guide one

Choose Your AI

The Everyday Person's Guide to Today's Chatbots

Twelve assistants, compared on the things that actually decide which one you should open: who owns it, what it costs, what it refuses to do, and the single job it does better than the others. Written for the person who has been told AI matters and would like a straight answer about why.

  • Covers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Meta AI, DeepSeek, Grok, Poe, Le Chat (since renamed Mistral Vibe), Duck.ai and Pi
  • Length 106 pages
  • Format Kindle, and free to read on Kindle Unlimited
Read it on Amazon
Cover of The Future is Hiring by Avery Irwin, showing the title in chrome and orange lettering above a city skyline at night.

Guide two

The Future is Hiring

50 New Careers Emerging in the Age of AI

Fifty roles that barely existed five years ago, each with the salary range, the skills required, and an honest account of how to break in without a computer science degree. Where the published salary data disagrees, both figures are given and the disagreement is named.

  • Built on the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report, published salary data, and named industry sources
  • Length 177 pages
  • Format Kindle, and free to read on Kindle Unlimited
Read it on Amazon

About

Avery Irwin

I write plain-English guides to artificial intelligence for people who have no intention of becoming engineers.

Most writing about AI is either marketing or jargon. Neither one helps you decide what to actually do on a Tuesday afternoon. So my books do something simpler: name the tool, say what it costs, explain what it is genuinely good for, and cite the source.

That last part is the whole point. Every salary figure in The Future is Hiring is attributed, and where my sources disagree I say so rather than quoting the flattering number. Every price in Choose Your AI comes from the company charging it. It would have been faster to repeat what everyone else repeats. It would also have been useless.

I write for people who are curious but skeptical. If you have been told AI matters and would like a straight answer about why, we will get along.

Further guides are in progress.