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.
Sweeping, thought-provoking ... I find Suleyman’s framing quite reasonable and helpful ... Compelling ... It is particularly impressive — and welcome — that Suleyman includes a wide-ranging and thoughtful discussion on concrete, practical steps we can take. His suggestions are remarkably broad and balanced ... A much-needed — and unusually thoughtful, expansive, historically rooted and engagingly written — guide.
Suleyman knows a thing or two about emerging technology ... He advocates pressure at critical choke points ... Even if Mr. Suleyman’s timing is off, his sense of the future seems directionally correct: AI and synthetic biology are creating transformative opportunities and existential dangers. As he plaintively asserts, now is the time to reckon with both possibilities.
The bad news is that Suleyman’s solution is effectively a utopian dream. He knows this, which is why there is an anguished undertone in the final chapters of the book ... Still, to his credit, he sticks to his guns to the end, winding up with a 10-step plan for containment, all of which makes sense and is eloquently articulated.
