Apart from the other excellent recommendations, I'd recommend Elements of Statistical Learning: https://hastie.su.domains/ElemStatLearn/

While not up to date to all the latest trends, it's a good book for many of the basics in ML that many take for granted.

I've been using AI/Neural networks since 2018 to make art and this is the argument that (very recently) has gained a lot of popularity in defense of AI art but baffles me the most. A human artist and a Neural Network are not the same: the NN is just a tool, that's why the user is still considered the artist. Giving human qualities to the NN, whenever convenient, is a detriment to the movement as a whole.