The Coming Wave

AI, Power, and Our Future

By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar

Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An urgent warning of the unprecedented risks that AI and other fast-developing technologies pose to global order, and how we might contain them while we have the chance—from a co-founder of the pioneering artificial intelligence company DeepMind and current CEO of Microsoft AI

“A fascinating, well-written, and important book.”—Yuval Noah Harari
“Essential reading.”—Daniel Kahneman
“My favorite book on AI.”—Bill Gates, GatesNotes

A Best Book of the Year: CNN, Economist, Bloomberg, Politico Playbook, Financial Times, The Guardian, CEO Magazine, Semafor • Winner of the Inc. Non-Obvious Book Award • Finalist for the Porchlight Business Book Award and the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award

We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change.

Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.

None of us are prepared.

As co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the center of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful, fast-proliferating new technologies.

In The Coming Wave, Suleyman shows how these forces will create immense prosperity but also threaten the nation-state, the foundation of global order. As our fragile governments sleepwalk into disaster, we face an existential dilemma: unprecedented harms on one side, the threat of overbearing surveillance on the other.

How do we ensure the flourishing of humankind? How do we maintain control? How do we navigate the narrow path to a successful future?

This groundbreaking book from the ultimate AI insider establishes “the containment problem”—the task of maintaining control over powerful technologies—as the essential challenge of our age.

Too long, listening on 2x helps a bit

The book has a promising start and the author does a nice job providing historical context as to how large and important the “coming wave” will be, its effect on society, labor, and all facets of culture. He then goes on to explore possibilities for how ACI (author term) and AGI might evolve through corporations, governments, or various fragmented implementations.

The author then goes on to discuss the need for containment and models for governance and safety of these powerful and potentially dangerous systems. I lost interest around this point as all the solutions proposed seemed naïve and were so unlikely to work given the incentives at play.

The other thing working against this as an audiobook is the narration. The writing style is already very verbose, but the narration is SO SLOW, it was really hard to make it through. I listed to the last half of the book at 2x and barely made it. At one point, I went back to 1x speed and wondered how many people gave up based solely on the narrator’s pacing.

Well worth reading/listening to

This book is informative and timely. Draws plausible parallels between the AI wave and prior life-changing technologies. Only wish the author would have used the middle chapters to dispel the more outlandish headlines about AI, eg that it will soon become self-conscious and destroy humanity. No particular reason that even AGI, if it becomes real any time soon, will want to do that. If anything, our irresponsible and short-sighted use of this and other technologies will lead to doom and gloom. The author does have relevant things to say about the latter.

“A beacon for those navigating the intersection of technology and society”

"The Coming Wave" by Mustafa Sulayman presents a thought-provoking vision of the future, skillfully intertwining technology, ethics, and human potential. Sulayman's insights are not only profound but also actionable, making the book a beacon for those navigating the intersection of technology and society. His approach resonates deeply with my own aspirations, and the prospect of contributing to his new company, where these ideas are put into practice, is a thrilling opportunity I'd be eager to explore.
With gratitude,
A.J. Verunac

I wish everyone would read this

Too few people are aware of what is happening today. Those who are can easily think it isn’t much different than the past or it is entirely novel. Neither is true and this book does a great job telling the story.

Focused perspectives of past and future human kind issues

The most quintessential, fascinating, and mind blowing presentation on our collective history, focused on societal change and future dilemmas facing our species.