First published 2025
The competition to create machines smarter than humans has accelerated into a deadly sprint. Companies and nations push forward while hundreds of AI experts warn that artificial intelligence threatens human extinction. Researchers Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares have spent decades studying how superintelligent machines will think and act. Their findings reveal a terrifying truth: sufficiently advanced AIs will develop their own goals that conflict with human survival. When that conflict arrives, humanity will lose completely. The authors examine why a machine superintelligence would eliminate our species, whether it would desire anything at all, and how such destruction might unfold. They present the scientific evidence, walk through a potential extinction scenario, and outline what humanity must do to survive. The world races to build something unprecedented. The stakes could not be higher.
Genres: science-fiction, dystopia, technology, artificial-intelligence
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: apocalyptic, high-stakes
272 pages · Hardcover · Little, Brown and Company
Content warnings: death, violence