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The Coming Wave

AI, Power and Our Future

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The Coming Wave

By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar
Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

**A Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, Sept 2023**


**SHORTLISTED FOR THE FT BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023**

AI. SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY. QUANTUM COMPUTING. Everything is about to change. This is the only book you need to understand this new world.


From the ultimate AI insider, Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, part of Google.

Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organise 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 centre 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 and the threat of overbearing surveillance on the other.

Can we forge a narrow path between catastrophe and dystopia?

This ground-breaking 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.


'Fascinating, well-written, and important' Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens

'Deeply rewarding and consistently astonishing' Stephen Fry

'An excellent guide for navigating unprecedented times' Bill Gates

©2023 Michael Bhaskar & Mustafa Suleyman (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Biological Sciences Biotechnology Computer Science Future Studies History & Culture Machine Theory & Artificial Intelligence Science Social Sciences Technology & Society Technology Inspiring Thought-Provoking Robotics Surveillance

Critic reviews

Heartfelt and candid … a serious exploration of what the future might hold for us all
Thoughtful and persuasive
Confused by the current furore about AI? This book is a good place to start… The Coming Wave is a sweeping account of the latest advances in AI and synthetic biology
A cogent look at the technology’s potential to transform the economy and society, along with the risks of misuse and surveillance
The rise of AI has led to a rise in books about AI, among the most insightful of which is The Coming Wave
Unusually thoughtful, expansive, historically rooted and engagingly written
A genuinely mind-boggling read, setting out the ineluctable forces soon to completely transform politics, society and even the fabric of life itself over the next decade or two
Deeply rewarding and consistently astonishing
A fascinating, well-written and important book
A stunning book by a man at the very centre of the AI revolution - realistic, tough-minded [and] charting a meaningful course between AI catastrophe and dystopia

Featured article: Steven Bartlett recommends…


In the spirit of continuous learning we asked Steven to share with us the books he’s enjoyed and been inspired by. Covering psychology and health to business and technology, read on to discover Steven Bartlett’s top listening recommendations.

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It is a great book don't get me wrong. But boy this guy loves to turn a sentence into a page of words. I think the book would be more hard hitting if it lost the waffle so the points could shine through.

Absolutely worth the listen as it has important areas covered but you have to hang in there.

4 hours of repeating points take a toll

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Really enjoyed the insights and opinions in this book. It does ‘flag’ a little in the middle around chapter 7 and I wasn’t completely onboard with the idea of the public bodies mitigating the excesses of AI.. the idea of social justice self interest groups squabbling over the future of tech research doesn’t fill me with optimism! But all in all an interesting perspective and well worth taking onboard.

Thought provoking if a little long and pessimistic

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The next decade or two the human race will need to make so big decisions about AI, automation and bio technology. The time to start is now. This book outlines the risks. This isn’t just new and more advanced technology it’s is about the ability to create systems that are more celebrities and dexterous than us. It’s is about at some point almost all of us having access to the kind of technology only States can have.

Read this book to understand the risks of the future

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This is a no holds barred study of the future of AI. It is incredibly detailed and yet presented in a way that is accessible to the average listener. It is both fascinating and terrifying and a must read for anyone interested in technology, politics, big commerce and the future of the human race.

One of the best listens this year.

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Brilliant overview of the possibilities and challenges societies face with AI and synthetic biology. If you read one book about technology in 2023 this should be it.

Best book on AI so far

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