The Big Nine Audiobook By Amy Webb cover art

The Big Nine

How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity

 Preview
Get this deal Try for $0.00
Offer ends December 1, 2025 11:59pm PT.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Join Audible for only $0.99 a month for the first 3 months, and get a bonus $20 credit for Audible.com. Bonus credit notification will be received via email.
1 audiobook per month of your choice from our unparalleled catalog.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Big Nine

By: Amy Webb
Narrated by: Amanda Dolan
Get this deal Try for $0.00

$14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offers ends December 1, 2025 11:59pm PT.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.19

Buy for $25.19

Get 3 months for $0.99 a month + $20 Audible credit
A call-to-arms about the broken nature of artificial intelligence, and the powerful corporations that are turning the human-machine relationship on its head.

We like to think that we are in control of the future of "artificial" intelligence. The reality, though, is that we -- the everyday people whose data powers AI -- aren't actually in control of anything. When, for example, we speak with Alexa, we contribute that data to a system we can't see and have no input into -- one largely free from regulation or oversight. The big nine corporations -- Amazon, Google, Facebook, Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, Microsoft, IBM and Apple--are the new gods of AI and are short-changing our futures to reap immediate financial gain.

In this book, Amy Webb reveals the pervasive, invisible ways in which the foundations of AI -- the people working on the system, their motivations, the technology itself -- is broken. Within our lifetimes, AI will, by design, begin to behave unpredictably, thinking and acting in ways which defy human logic. The big nine corporations may be inadvertently building and enabling vast arrays of intelligent systems that don't share our motivations, desires, or hopes for the future of humanity.

Much more than a passionate, human-centered call-to-arms, this book delivers a strategy for changing course, and provides a path for liberating us from algorithmic decision-makers and powerful corporations. Computer Science History & Culture Technology Artificial Intelligence Inspiring Socialism

Critic reviews

"Rather than questioning the character of thinking machines, futurist Amy Webb turns a critical eye on the humans behind the computers. With AI's development overwhelmingly driven by nine tech powerhouses, she asks: Is it possible for the technology to serve the best interests of everyone?"—Wired
"Webb's assessments are based on analyses of patent filings, policy briefings, interviews and other sources. She paints vivid pictures of how AI could benefit the average person, via precision medicine or smarter dating apps...Her forecasts are provocative and unsettlingly plausible."—Science News
"Instead of predicting the future, Webb lays out scenarios for optimistic, pragmatic, and catastrophic outcomes -- all extrapolated from current facts. However impractical you may find the idea of a common Apple-Amazon operating system named Applezon, considering potential scenarios is a fantastically healthy exercise, because anyone who tells you they know how AI is going to turn out is lying."—VentureBeat
"We need to get Amy Webb to campus. This is one of those cases where organizing discussions of the book would be great - but not enough. We would be wise to engage with Webb directly... We need more books like The Big Nine that are critical of higher education for reasons beyond politics (liberal bias) or costs... The Big Nine is an essential book for anyone interested in a global perspective around the role of companies and governmental policies in determining technological change."—InsideHigherEd
"Webb is a first-rate storyteller...she has poured a lifetime of researching, writing, and conversing--in a word, thinking--into her masterwork."—Law.com
"The Big Nine is provocative, readable, and relatable. Amy Webb demonstrates her extensive knowledge of the science driving AI and the geopolitical tensions that could result between the US and China in particular. She offers deep insights into how AI could reshape our economies and the current world order, and she details a plan to help humanity chart a better course."—AnjaManuel, Stanford University, cofounder and partner RiceHadleyGates
"The Big Nine is an important and intellectually crisp work that illuminates the promise and peril of AI. Will AI serve its three current American masters in Washington, Silicon Valley and Wall Street or will it serve the interests of the broader public? Will it concentrate or disperse economic and geopolitical power? We can thank Amy Webb for helping us understand the questions and how to arrive at answers that will better serve humanity than our current path. The Big Nine should be discussed in classrooms and boardrooms around the world."—Alec Ross, author of TheIndustries of the Future
Informative Analysis • Thought-provoking Scenarios • Outstanding Performance • Comprehensive Ai Overview

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
Very well written and knowledgeable. The had clearly done her research and put them into clear perspectives.

Informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great futuristic insight that seems more relevant now with Carona SARSv2 and the possibility that AI played a role in its creation (full speculation) or can hopefully play a role in a vaccine.

Even more relevant with Carona SARSv2

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book was incredible. AI could be the best thing that's ever happened to us or it could be the downfall of us all and the rise of a world order that is the stuff of nightmares. Amy Webb does a spectacular job of explaining what we need to do as a society to make sure that AI serves the best interests of humanity and how we are currently failing at this task spectacularly.

Maybe the most important book you'll ever read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Narration very good, broad perspective. not sure I will sleep well tonight. I am sure it will all work out....

Must read, is it ready too late

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The author's well-paced commitment to the reader's clarity and responsibility analysis of the big nine are admirable.

A no-holds account of our AI infused reality.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The title is a little misleading. it's not just about the big 9. It's about politics and society and how other countries (China) are outcompeting us in AI and will very soon overtake the US. This book is a big wake up call. The American military spends too much on hardware (because that's where the lobby money is) and not enough on scientific research (especially into AI). China has our number. Unfortunately I don't see a scenario where we reform our corrupt appropriations system in time not to become a servant to China by around mid-century. Good book though.

Best AI book I've read since Bostrom

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really excellent overview of where the world is today in the development of AI. Paints some very vivid scenarios of what can happen if we don’t control it and how it can impact the global political orders.

Important and Timely

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very few learnings from this book.
It starts well with some good introduction and concepts of AI but then the author starts depcting fictional scenarios on what she thinks could be the impacts of AI. 70% of the book is about listening to this. It barely talks about the big nine, what they are doing or how they are doing it.
Would not recommend it, just finished it because I couldnt return it any longer

Misleading title

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
such a well written book that covers the history, current state, and potential future of how AI fits into all of our lives.

Informative and Distressing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The perspective taken with respect to the G-MAFIA is largely uncritical and overly hopeful. Rather than delve into the corrupting influence of profit on the G-MAFIA (e.g. Russian involvement in the 2016 election via Facebook and pedophilia group formation mediated by the YouTube recommendation algorithms), the author pins these shortcomings generally on social pressures to produce advanced AI applications (there's no support for this claim given). This perspective then taints the whole argument of the book, which is that we need to support the G-MAFIA in AI development rather than regulate or file for anti-trust suits. As an AI researcher in this space, I have seen absolutely no indication that the G-MAFIA actually ever esteems the public good over their bottom line, so to assume that if we simply stop expecting big advances in AI (and that the companies are made sufficiently diverse) is not only irresponsible, it's dangerous.

My other main gripe with this book is that China's soon to be preeminence in AI is used to justify nearly every proposed course of action. I for one am certainly terrified of China's AI plan, but I don't think that it justifies throwing caution to the wind by simply trusting the G-MAFIA to fight the good fight if they pick up enough diversity (this is the only mechanism of changing the G-MAFIA that the author argues for).

All-in-all, the author gives a decent run-down of current AI capabilities and provides some thoughtful discussion of where AI is headed, but the very premise of the argument seems, to me at least, to be up for debate. It would have been nice to see at least some of that debate in this work.

Trusting to a Fault

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews