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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

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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.

Featured article Steven Bartlett recommends…
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Mustafa Suleyman's "The Coming Wave" is a seriously interesting look at how AI is going to change, well, everything! Suleyman, one of the brains behind DeepMind, knows his stuff, and he's got a knack for explaining things without getting too techy.
This book isn't just about the cool stuff AI can do (though there's plenty of that!), it's also about the big questions: How will AI affect our jobs, our politics, even our art? And, importantly, how do we make sure AI is a force for good in the world? Suleyman doesn't sugarcoat things – he talks about the potential downsides, like job losses and bias, but he also offers some smart solutions.
Honestly, this book is a page-turner. It's packed with fascinating insights and real-world examples that make you think, "Whoa, the future is going to be wild!" If you're curious about AI and how it's going to shape our world, "The Coming Wave" is definitely worth checking out. It's a wake-up call, but it's also hopeful, and it'll leave you feeling like you're in the loop about one of the biggest shifts in human history.

Great insight and ponderings of AI

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Just face it, people, humans are getting obsolete. Our brains and social networks are simply incapable of cleaning up the mess we created. I hope the tech elite, instead of going on godlike ego trips, like in this book, focuses on avoiding the "paper clip" epic fail so we can transcend nicely into the next form of existence.

Fancy wording, basic info, doubtful proposals.

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A really comprehensive overview of the next revolution and how technologies are converging to great opportunities and threats. The author deals with issues not often spoken about and does a great job at sharing a balanced view throughout

Great insight into the future of AI

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Every week MI5 and MI6 hold a risk meeting this book is a collection of those reviews over the last 5 years and indeed will be plagiarised for the next 5 from this book ! The contents of this book is being discussed at every level within government which in turn decides the strategic direction of our intelligence services . Without over dramatising this is our new Cold War and we are a player ahead of the game but are constrained by ethics and morals unlike our enemies like Russia and China . Please read and digest this book it is without doubt on the frontier of this technology .

Exceptional !

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What an amazing insight into where we are currently and more importantly, where we’re heading in the very near future!
A must list to for all of humanity.
Don’t skip this book, otherwise you’ll be left behind!
This really challenges your current understanding and thinking of Ai. Thank you for all the research and information you provided.

One of the most important books you’ll ever listen to!

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