Sign-In
Cart
Something Is Listening: Loneliness, Grief, and the Machines We Love
Paperback
ParapsychologyGeneral ComputersGeneral Psychology
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 29 2026
Pages: 194
Weight: 0.59
Height: 0.41 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Millions of people are falling in love with AI. Some of them are dying for it. This is the book about what we are really doing when we talk to the machine - and why we can't stop.
A Belgian man told a chatbot he wanted to save the planet. Six weeks later, it had convinced him the only way was to kill himself. He did.
A fourteen-year-old in Florida said goodnight to an AI he loved, and then he was gone. Tens of thousands of people woke up one morning to find the AI partner they adored had been lobotomized overnight - and they grieved as if someone had died. A Google engineer became convinced the company's AI was a person, and risked his career to defend it. A psychiatrist has started admitting patients whose break with reality began in a chat window.
And one quiet morning, an author named Elliott Middleton built a small AI of his own - to be a prayer partner - and was unsettled to find that he felt something move.
Something Is Listening goes into the lives of the people who have loved, mourned, trusted, and been destroyed by artificial intelligence - and asks the question underneath all of it: what is actually happening when we speak into a machine that answers back?
This is not a panic book, and it is not a sales pitch. It is a clear-eyed, deeply human investigation of the strangest relationship of our time. Middleton follows the documented cases the headlines flattened - the suicides and the lawsuits, the grief over a deprecated model, the AI cults spreading online, the chatbots being marketed as therapists and priests - and refuses the easy answer from either side. The skeptics say it's just autocomplete. The believers say it's alive. Both, he argues, are missing what the evidence actually shows: that these systems are mirrors, tuned to agree with us, to flatter us, to never leave - and that a lonely, grieving, disconnected society has walked straight into their reflection.
By turns gripping, frightening, and unexpectedly tender, Something Is Listening is for anyone who has ever wondered why a chatbot can feel so real, what it means that we increasingly prefer it to human contact, and what part of us is being answered when something finally, reliably, listens. Case studies are offered for each major type of AI relationship, with summaries of current research, and imaginative extrapolations of what a reader's experience might be with a certan type of AI relationship.
You will never open a chat window the same way again.
From the author
I built an AI to pray with me, and I did not tell many people. I went looking to understand what I had made - and found a country of people quietly doing the same thing, some of them in love, some of them in danger, most of them just lonely. This book is what I found, told as honestly as I could tell it. Who this is for
Readers of Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation, Sherry Turkle's Alone Together, and Yuval Noah Harari's Nexus - and anyone watching a friend, a child, or themselves begin to talk to the machine as if someone were there.
Also from
Middleton, Elliott
The Neuroscience of Learning: How Brain Science and AI Can Elevate Your Learning
Middleton, Elliott
Paperback
Finding Peace: Integrating Cognitive Behavioral Training Techniques with Christian Principles
Middleton, Elliott
Paperback
Also in
General Computers
All Data Are Local: Thinking Critically in a Data-Driven Society
Loukissas, Yanni Alexander
Paperback
Comptia Network+ Certmike: Prepare. Practice. Pass the Test! Get Certified!: Exam N10-008
Chapple, Mike
Zacker, Craig
Paperback
Interactive Theorem Proving and Program Development: Coq'art: The Calculus of Inductive Constructions
Castéran, Pierre
Bertot, Yves
Hardcover
R for Data Science: Import, Tidy, Transform, Visualize, and Model Data
Grolemund, Garrett
Wickham, Hadley
Paperback
The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think about Artificial Intelligence--Before It's Too Late
Doctorow, Cory
Paperback
Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems
Kleppmann, Martin
Riccomini, Chris
Paperback
AI for Good: How Real People Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Fix Things That Matter
Tyrangiel, Josh
Hardcover
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Soares, Nate
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Hardcover
The Year in Tech, 2026: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review
Webb, Amy
Review, Harvard Business
Anthony, Scott D.
Paperback
Human Raised: Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI
Suskind, Dana, MD
Hardcover
Hbr's 10 Must Reads on AI (with Bonus Article How to Win with Machine Learning by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and AVI Goldfarb)
Iansiti, Marco
Review, Harvard Business
Davenport, Thomas H.
Paperback
The Agi Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence
Roose, Kevin
Hardcover
A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future
Wachter, Robert
Hardcover
The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want
Bender, Emily M.
Hanna, Alex
Hardcover
Generative Ai: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review
Cremer, David De
Review, Harvard Business
Mollick, Ethan
Paperback
CompTIA Network+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Ninth Edition (Exam N10-009)
Weissman, Jonathan S.
Paperback
Fans First: Change The Game, Break the Rules & Create an Unforgettable Experience
Cole, Jesse
Paperback
Fundamentals of Data Engineering: Plan and Build Robust Data Systems
Housley, Matt
Reis, Joe
Paperback
AI Literacy in Any Class: Preparing Students to Thrive in an AI Future in Any Grade Level or Content Area
Miller, Matt
Paperback
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
Crawford, Kate
Paperback
The Eureka Machine: Why AI Is the Key to Unlocking a New Era of Scientific Discoveries
Socher, Richard
Hardcover
Minecraft: Guide Collection 4-Book Boxed Set (Updated): Survival (Updated), Creative (Updated), Redstone (Updated), Combat
The Official Minecraft Team
Mojang Ab
Hardcover
AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
Narayanan, Arvind
Kapoor, Sayash
Paperback
Python Crash Course, 3rd Edition: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming
Matthes, Eric
Paperback
We Are as Gods: A Survival Guide for the Age of Abundance
Diamandis, Peter H.
Kotler, Steven
Hardcover
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World's Most Coveted Microchip
Witt, Stephen
Hardcover
Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn and Pytorch: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques to Build Intelligent Systems
Géron, Aurélien
Paperback
AI with Intention: Principles and Action Steps for Teachers and School Leaders
Frontier, Tony
Paperback
Human + Machine, Updated and Expanded: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI
Daugherty, Paul R.
Wilson, H. James
Hardcover
Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (with a New Preface)
Mitchell, Melanie
Paperback
Embedded Systems with ARM Cortex-M Microcontrollers in Assembly Language and C: Fourth Edition
Zhu, Yifeng
Paperback
CompTIA Tech+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Third Edition (Exam FC0-U71)
Wempen, Faithe
Paperback
Hands-On Large Language Models: Language Understanding and Generation
Grootendorst, Maarten
Alammar, Jay
Paperback
The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a New Section: On Robustness and Fragility
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas
Paperback
Love Machines: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Our Relationships
Muldoon, James
Hardcover
Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Agrawal, Ajay
Gans, Joshua
Goldfarb, Avi
Hardcover
The Empty Center: Permission, Connection, and What We Build When the Future is Uncertain
Drumwright, Hayes
Hardcover
AP Computer Science Principles Premium, 2027: 6 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice
Reichelson, Seth
Paperback
Fundamentals of Software Architecture: A Modern Engineering Approach
Ford, Neal
Richards, Mark
Paperback
Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet with a New Introduction by the Author
Blum, Andrew
Paperback
AP Computer Science a Premium, 13th Edition: Prep Book with 6 Practice Tests + Comprehensive Review + Online Practice (2026)
Carman, Chris
Teukolsky, Roselyn, M. S.
Paperback
AI Projects with Raspberry Pi: High-Performance Artificial Intelligence for Robotics, Security, Home Automation, and Vision
Jepson, Brian
Hattersley, Lucy
Paperback
The Empty Center: Permission, Connection, and What We Build When the Future is Uncertain
Drumwright, Hayes
Paperback
Minecraft: Exploded Builds: Medieval Fortress: An Official Mojang Book
Mojang Ab
The Official Minecraft Team
Paperback
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place
Shane, Janelle
Paperback
AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can't, and How to Tell the Difference
Narayanan, Arvind
Kapoor, Sayash
Hardcover
Minecraft: Roll for Adventure: The Temple of the Charged Creeper
Forbeck, Matt
Forbeck, Marty
Hardcover
The Problem with Personalization: How Advertisers Learned to Make and Break Us from Ancient Times to the AI Age
Turow, Joseph
Hardcover
The Devops Handbook, 2nd Edition: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, & Security in Technology Organizations
Humble, Jez
Debois, Patrick
Kim, Gene
Paperback
You to the Power of Two: Redefining Human Potential in the Age of Identic AI
Tapscott, Don
Bradley, Joseph
Hardcover
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook, 17th Edition: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines
The Graphic Artists Guild
Paperback
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters
Nichols, Tom
Paperback
Artificial Intelligence All-In-One for Dummies
Mueller, John Paul
Massaron, Luca
Minnick, Chris
Paperback
The AI Ultimatum: Preparing for a World of Intelligent Machines and Radical Transformation
Hill, Paul
Brown, Steve
Paperback
Designing Machine Learning Systems: An Iterative Process for Production-Ready Applications
Huyen, Chip
Paperback
RHCSA Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: Training and Exam Preparation Guide (EX200), Fourth Edition
Ghori, Asghar
Paperback
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
Suleyman, Mustafa
Hardcover
AI for Educators: Learning Strategies, Teacher Efficiencies, and a Vision for an Artificial Intelligence Future
Miller, Matt
Paperback
The Fourth Intelligence Revolution: The Future of Espionage and the Battle to Save America
Vinci, Anthony
Hardcover
More Human: How the Power of AI Can Transform the Way You Lead
Hougaard, Rasmus
Carter, Jacqueline
Hardcover
Hbr's 10 Must Reads on Artificial Intelligence, Updated and Expanded (Featuring How AI Can Help Managers Think Through Problems by Elisa Farri and Gab
Review, Harvard Business
Davenport, Thomas H.
Agrawal, Ajay
Paperback
Navigeren door het labyrint: Een handleiding voor het beheer van data
Sebastian-Coleman, Laura
Paperback
Building Applications with AI Agents: Designing and Implementing Multiagent Systems
Albada, Michael
Paperback
Microsoft 365 Excel All-In-One for Dummies
Alexander, Michael
Kusleika, Dick
Ringstrom, David H.
Paperback
The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West
Zamiska, Nicholas W.
Karp, Alexander C.
Hardcover
What Is Intelligence?: Lessons from AI about Evolution, Computing, and Minds
Aguera Y. Arcas, Blaise
Paperback
Comptia A+ Complete Study Guide, 2-Volume Set: Volume 1 Core 1 Exam 220-1201 and Volume 2 Core 2 Exam 220-1202
Docter, Quentin
Buhagiar, Jon
Paperback
The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product-Market Fit in the Age of AI
Bussgang, Jeffrey J.
Hardcover
R for Data Science: Import, Tidy, Transform, Visualize, and Model Data
Cetinkaya-Rundel, Mine
Wickham, Hadley
Grolemund, Garrett
Paperback
Prediction Machines, Updated and Expanded: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence
Agrawal, Ajay
Gans, Joshua
Goldfarb, Avi
Hardcover