'The most important book of the decade' MAX TEGMARK, author of Life 3.0

'A loud trumpet call to humanity to awaken us as we sleepwalk into disaster - we must wake up' STEPHEN FRY

** A Guardian biggest book of the autumn **

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

The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction – but it’s not too late to change course. Two pioneering researchers in the field, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, explain why artificial superintelligence would be a global suicide bomb and call for an immediate halt to its development.

The technology may be complex but the facts are simple: companies and countries are in a race to build machines that will be smarter than any person, and the world is devastatingly unprepared for what will come next.

Could a machine superintelligence wipe out our entire species? Would it want to? Would it want anything at all? In this urgent book, Yudkowsky and Soares explore the theory and the evidence, present one possible extinction scenario and explain what it would take for humanity to survive.

The world is racing to build something truly new – and if anyone builds it, everyone dies.

"Should you worry about superintelligent AI? The answer from one of the tech world’s most influential doomsayers, Eliezer Yudkowsky, is emphatically yes. The good news? We aren’t there yet, and there are still steps we can take to avert disaster" - Guardian ** Biggest Books of the Autumn **

"Given the gravity of the case [Yudkowsky and Soares] make, it feels an odd thing to say that this book is good. It is readable. It tells stories well. At points it is like a thriller – albeit one where the thrills come from the obliteration of literally everything of value … This is the apocalypse du jour … The achievement of this book is, given the astonishing claims they make, that they make a credible case for not being mad. But I really hope they are: because I can’t see a way we get off that ladder." - The Times

"A timely and terrifying education on the galloping havoc AI could unleash - unless we grasp the reins and take control" - Kirkus

"[An] urgent clarion call to prevent the creation of artificial superintelligence … A frightening warning that deserves to be reckoned with" - Publishers Weekly