If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All

De: Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nate Soares

Narrado por: Rafe Beckley

"May prove to be the most important book of our time.”—Tim Urban, Wait But Why

The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction—but it’s not too late to change course, as two of the field’s earliest researchers explain in this clarion call for humanity.

In 2023, hundreds of AI luminaries signed an open letter warning that artificial intelligence poses a serious risk of human extinction. Since then, the AI race has only intensified. Companies and countries are rushing to build machines that will be smarter than any person. And the world is devastatingly unprepared for what would come next.

For decades, two signatories of that letter—Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares—have studied how smarter-than-human intelligences will think, behave, and pursue their objectives. Their research says that sufficiently smart AIs will develop goals of their own that put them in conflict with us—and that if it comes to conflict, an artificial superintelligence would crush us. The contest wouldn’t even be close.

How could a machine superintelligence wipe out our entire species? Why would it want to? Would it want anything at all? In this urgent book, Yudkowsky and Soares walk through the theory and the evidence, present one possible extinction scenario, and explain what it would take for humanity to survive.

The world is racing to build something truly new under the sun. And if anyone builds it, everyone dies.

“The best no-nonsense, simple explanation of the AI risk problem I've ever read.”—Yishan Wong, Former CEO of Reddit

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The most important book of the decade. This captivating page-turner, from two of today’s clearest thinkers, reveals that the competition to build smarter-than-human machines isn’t an arms race but a suicide race, fueled by wishful thinking."—Max Tegmark, author of Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of AI

“If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies may prove to be the most important book of our time. Yudkowsky and Soares believe we are nowhere near ready to make the transition to superintelligence safely, leaving us on the fast track to extinction. Through the use of parables and crystal-clear explainers, they convey their reasoning, in an urgent plea for us to save ourselves while we still can.”—Tim Urban, cofounder, Wait But Why

“The most important book I’ve read for years: I want to bring it to every political and corporate leader in the world and stand over them until they’ve read it. Yudkowsky and Soares, who have studied AI and its possible trajectories for decades, sound a loud trumpet call to humanity to awaken us as we sleepwalk into disaster.”—Stephen Fry

“The best no-nonsense, simple explanation of the AI risk problem I've ever read.”—Yishan Wong, former CEO of Reddit

“Soares and Yudkowsky lay out, in plain and easy-to-follow terms, why our current path toward ever-more-powerful AIs is extremely dangerous.”—Emmett Shear, former interim CEO of OpenAI

“Everyone should read this book. There’s a 70% chance that you—yes, you reading this right now—will one day grudgingly admit that we all should have listened to Yudkowsky and Soares when we still had the chance."—Daniel Kokotajlo, AI Futures Project

"A compelling introduction to the world's most important topic. Artificial general intelligence could be just a few years away. This is one of the few books that takes the implications seriously, published right as the danger level begins to spike."—Scott Alexander, founder, Astral Codex Ten

“Claims about the risks of AI are often dismissed as advertising, but this book disproves it. Yudkowsky and Soares are not from the AI industry, and have been writing about these risks since before it existed in its present form. Read their disturbing book and tell us what they get wrong.”—Huw Price, Bertrand Russell Professor Emeritus, Trinity College, Cambridge

Terrifying and Probable

Like having a tiny tiger cub as a pet, eventually it will eat you. How soon?

A must read for everyone

Having read much about the AI alignment problem and AI risks and being an AI practitioner, I approached this book with skepticism. I was wrong. This is a clever and concise presentation of the problem. I won't waste your time further reading this review - drop everything and go read this book, now. It's that important.

Motivating call to action against a common enemy, but are we too busy fighting each other to act decisively in time?

Kathryn Bigelow recommended this book in a Guardian interview so I ordered it yesterday and devoured it today

The existential threat posed by ASI is made clear by the authors, both unimpeachable experts on the subject

I appreciated the analogies, escape strategies, and incentives, motivations, and methods uncontrollable Artificial Super Intelligence will likely use to eradicate us while it eats the planet

Until then enjoy every day, celebrate life, and listen to this book so you'll know who, what, how, and why

The when is dependent on efforts to avert this extinction event of our own making

If anyone builds it, everyone dies

I am hesitant to even attempt a review of this book because the consequences seem so dire

Excellent distillation of the perils of sleepwalking into an AI future!

This work had excellent information about the workings of LLMs that I had not been aware of previously. It is engaging and does an excellent job explaining and illustrating the principles, arguments, and conclusions the author are seeking to convey. It is also terrifying and confounding, but offers a glimmer of hope. There is much to fear if you take this work as seriously as it should be. However, there is also a chance to hear the warning and take action.