The Coming Wave Audiobook By Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar cover art

The Coming Wave

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

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
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 Coming Wave

By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar
Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.33

Buy for $20.33

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

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
Computer Science Future Studies Robotics Surveillance
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

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

What listeners say about The Coming Wave

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    34
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    33
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    29
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling & compulsory listening

An insider’s insights on the fearsome tools AI puts in the hands of saints and sinners alike. When your job collapses around you, as is likely, where will you look? This illuminating book may well be your pathfinder,

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Valiant start to a paradigm shift

There aren’t too many books that encapsulate the urgent issues facing human kind, relating to the rise of LLMs and all but inevitable reality of Artificial General Intelligence, followed by Super Intelligence.

The decades long AI winter where hardly any progress occurred, while science fiction has raced ahead with imagination, has only hampered the urgency to understand the coming wave. Too soon for neglect, the enormous impact on our species will be mind boggling. While some would compare the AI to the revolution of the internet, others take a further step and compare it to the Industrial Revolution, but no one can fully comprehend this technology has the potential to be more disruptive than farming. This is where we are and only a handful of people really know what’s going on.

The author is one such expert, and for that reason this book should be a must read for everyone. Although an optimist, and who wouldn’t be, with literally all possibilities open for improving all aspects of life, he highlights the coming changes and its forceable impacts on society, unintended consequences and possible but unlikely remedies to avoid catastrophe. Obviously what we don’t know is what will really matter, and unfortunately for that reason there is not much to write about. The unknown unknowns, are all but certain and carry inevitable dangers, possibly existential.

The book is easy to follow, but dare I say might just be outdated. Since this book, ChatGPT4 has evolved into something that even the creators are struggling to get their heads around. Apparently AGI has been achieved internally and the only clue we have is the near breakdown of potentially the most powerful company in the world for reasons too secret and dangerous to disclose to the public. Keyword Q* is all we have to go with.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An important call to action for our future world

Mustafa Suleyman is uncovering the depths of the revolution that technology brings to our doorstep and offers some important lessons. This is Yuval Noah Harari wanna be book, with practical implications.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant!

Clear message...Containment! Containment! Containment!
It's great to hear of the concerns from some whom are leading the way, this is responsible AI design.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very relevant topic.

Authoritative, Comprehensive coverage. From a man who knows what he is talking about. Must listen/ read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly insightful

99.9% of us have no idea how AI and synthetic biology are developing right under our noses. The implications are profound and inescapable. This book is critical reading for everyone who wants to get an idea of some scenarios that awaits humanity

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Timely

Interesting to hear the perspectives of one of the key players in the field.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

crítico e necessário

análise crítica e uma visão privilegiada das possíveis evoluções da onda de novas tecnologias que já estão nos impactando

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The coming futures

It's an interesting proposal on the risk we should look after in the inevitable process we are about to face

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Thought provoking, insightful and timely

While the author may have taken several leaps to cover large swathes of ground, the intent is admirable and the issues identified are valuable. A brave effort!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!