# How to Read This Book | AI Wars of 2026

> A guide to the argument and its evidence. A page from the AI Wars of 2026 research edition.

Canonical URL: https://ai-wars.correax.com/reading-guide

## How to Read This Book

This book examines AI as a set of overlapping strategic contests, not simply as
a leaderboard of models. Models matter, but so do agents, applications,
platforms, clouds, devices, data, identity, authority, execution, and the
workflows where people decide whether to trust an AI system.

Start with Part 0 to understand the contests, prizes, and tests of winning.
Part I develops the shift from answers to delegated action. Part II applies
that frame to core and provisional contenders with different starting positions.
Later research sections examine the systems and battlegrounds that can change
the balance of power.

### Read the claims with their boundaries

Each chapter begins with a Big Idea: a specific proposition that matters strategically and can be tested. The chapter then identifies what the evidence supports, what it does not, and what could change the conclusion.

Source numbers open the records behind factual claims. Those records identify who reported the evidence, when, and the limits of what it can establish.

### This is a living book

The research record changes as better evidence appears. Pages marked **New**
were recently added. Pages marked **Updated** have changed since you last
completed them. Pages marked **Read** are completed at their current version.
A page returns to **Updated** when a substantive revision changes what you
previously completed.

The book follows more than model releases. It asks how intelligence becomes part
of work, who earns the right to act on a user's behalf, and where the resulting
value may accumulate. A product announcement establishes what a company has
introduced or claimed; it cannot independently establish market share,
productivity, reliability, or a lasting competitive advantage.

### Treat the conclusion as provisional

The purpose is not to celebrate a technology cycle or crown a company early. It is to make the underlying strategic question inspectable:

> **Which positions turn intelligence into trusted, consequential action—and what evidence would show they create durable value?**