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The Coming Wave

A.I., Power and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma

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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.

©2023 Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Future Studies Machine Theory & Artificial Intelligence Robotics Thought-Provoking Surveillance
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Critic reviews

'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

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.

What listeners say about The Coming Wave

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One of the best listens this year.

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.

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Excellent

Excellent listen. Highly recommended. Extremely relevant at this period in time with so much hype around A.I!!

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Unique Experience and Perspective

Very few people in our generation will have gained this experience and perspective. A must read for anyone interested in designing a better future

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Interesting and frightful.

This book tries to drive home the huge risks and the possible gains of AI. And after spending about ten chapters of painting a rather dark future, it spends the final ones trying to usher in a positive vibe and suggests some directions to wander for humanity to limit risks, and change the patterns of human history.
I am very impressed with the authors grasp of history and enjoy listening to examples and analogies. But this is not for the faint of heart.

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    3 out of 5 stars

4 hours of repeating points take a toll

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.

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Very good state-of-the-art presentation

Very good overview of the field and state-of-the-art AI. I consider myself a technology-optimist, but this book pushes that part a bit too far. Also, the trust is state’s abilities to contain and regulate are a bit too ver the top. Maybe this is the auther’s views. Can also be pushed to provoke to action

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5 STAR excellent listen!

I found this book to be fascinating , from the historical facts and politics, the whole book was put together brilliantly with fascinating insight into the subject. raving about it to everyone that will listen!
thanks for writing it!

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Incredibly insightful

An incredible read & very well narrated. Apart from the terribly liberal, red scare anti-communist takes on ‘muh authoritarianism’ this book, I feel, has prepped me for the genuinely enormous coming wave of pocket Ai tools. Highly recommended read!

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Read this book to understand the risks of the future

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.

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Mostly good

On the whole, I liked the book. It’s an interesting perspective on anticipated future technologies and their implications.

The author expresses some pretty dubious political views (like excessively trusting authority) and presents them in a way that makes them sound like an inevitable consequence of coming technologies, which they just aren’t. Also towards the end of the book he stands by a decision to appoint a notorious transphobe to an ethics advisory position, apparently having failed to learn the lesson of that mess.

The book is well-written and well-read, but take aspects of it (especially political aspects) with a pinch of salt.

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