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If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

The Case Against Superintelligent AI
Brief Description
The founder of the field of AI risk explains why superintelligent AI is a global suicide bomb and we must halt development immediately. AI is the greatest threat to our existence that we have ever faced. The technology may be complex but the facts are simple.... Read More
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The founder of the field of AI risk explains why superintelligent AI is a global suicide bomb and we must halt development immediately.

AI is the greatest threat to our existence that we have ever faced.

The technology may be complex but the facts are simple. We are currently on a path to build superintelligent AI. When we do, it will be vastly more powerful than us. Whether it 'thinks' or 'feels' is irrelevant, but it will have objectives and they will be completely different from ours. And regardless of how we train it, even the slightest deviation from human goals will be catastrophic for our speciesโ€”meaning extinction.

Precisely how this happens is unknowable, but what we do know is that when it happens, it will happen incredibly fast. However it happens, all paths lead to the same conclusionโ€”superintelligent AI is a global suicide bomb. The labs developing it have no adequate plan or set of policies for tackling this issue, and we will not get a second chance.

From the leading thinkers in the field of AI risk, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies explains with terrifying clarity why in the race to build superintelligent AI, the only winning move for our species is not to play.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781847928931

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 18 September 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: The Bodley Head Ltd

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 21.0mm

Width: 152.0mm

Height: 234.0mm

Weight: 334g

Pages: 272

About the Author

Eliezer Yudkowsky (Author) Eliezer Yudkowsky is the co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), and the founder of the field of AI alignment research. He is one of the most influential thinkers and writers on the topic of AI risk, and his TIME magazine op-ed of 2023 is largely responsible for sparking the current concern and discussion around the potential for human extinction. Nate Soares (Author) Nate Soares is the president of MIRI and one of its seniormost researchers. He has been working in the field of AI alignment for over a decade, after previous experience at Microsoft and Google.

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