The Coming Wave: the ground-breaking book from the ultimate AI insider – Suleyman Mustafa (2023)

Artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and quantum computing are about to transform the world. Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, part of Google, examines the technologies that will soon surround us, from systems that organize our lives, operate businesses and run essential government services to DNA printers, quantum computers, engineered pathogens, autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy. Suleyman argues that the coming decade will be defined by a wave of powerful technologies spreading rapidly across society. They may create immense prosperity, but they also threaten the nation-state, the foundation of global order. As governments fail to prepare, humanity faces an existential dilemma between unprecedented harms and the danger of oppressive surveillance. The essential challenge of our age, he argues, is the containment problem: maintaining control over powerful technologies. The book asks whether we can find a narrow path between catastrophe and dystopia. Yuval Noah Harari, Stephen Fry, Bill Gates, Rory Stewart and Daniel Kahneman describe it as fascinating, important, astonishing and essential reading.