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If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All

AUTHOR Yudkowsky, Eliezer; Soares, Nate
PUBLISHER Little Brown and Company (09/16/2025)
PRODUCT TYPE Hardcover (Hardcover)

Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction--but it's not too late to change course, as two of the field's earliest researchers explain in this clarion call for humanity.

"May prove to be the most important book of our time."--Tim Urban, Wait But Why

In 2023, hundreds of AI luminaries signed an open letter warning that artificial intelligence poses a serious risk of human extinction. Since then, the AI race has only intensified. Companies and countries are rushing to build machines that will be smarter than any person. And the world is devastatingly unprepared for what would come next.

For decades, two signatories of that letter--Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares--have studied how smarter-than-human intelligences will think, behave, and pursue their objectives. Their research says that sufficiently smart AIs will develop goals of their own that put them in conflict with us--and that if it comes to conflict, an artificial superintelligence would crush us. The contest wouldn't even be close.

How could a machine superintelligence wipe out our entire species? Why would it want to? Would it want anything at all? In this urgent book, Yudkowsky and Soares walk through 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 under the sun. And if anyone builds it, everyone dies.

"The best no-nonsense, simple explanation of the AI risk problem I've ever read."--Yishan Wong, Former CEO of Reddit

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Product Format
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780316595643
ISBN-10: 0316595640
Binding: Hardback or Cased Book (Sewn)
Content Language: English
More Product Details
Page Count: 272
Carton Quantity: 20
Product Dimensions: 6.50 x 1.20 x 9.60 inches
Weight: 1.00 pound(s)
Feature Codes: Bibliography, Index, Price on Product
Country of Origin: US
Subject Information
BISAC Categories
Computers | Artificial Intelligence - General
Computers | Technology Studies
Computers | Public Policy - Science & Technology Policy
Dewey Decimal: 006.3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2025938106
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
publisher marketing
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction--but it's not too late to change course, as two of the field's earliest researchers explain in this clarion call for humanity.

"May prove to be the most important book of our time."--Tim Urban, Wait But Why

In 2023, hundreds of AI luminaries signed an open letter warning that artificial intelligence poses a serious risk of human extinction. Since then, the AI race has only intensified. Companies and countries are rushing to build machines that will be smarter than any person. And the world is devastatingly unprepared for what would come next.

For decades, two signatories of that letter--Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares--have studied how smarter-than-human intelligences will think, behave, and pursue their objectives. Their research says that sufficiently smart AIs will develop goals of their own that put them in conflict with us--and that if it comes to conflict, an artificial superintelligence would crush us. The contest wouldn't even be close.

How could a machine superintelligence wipe out our entire species? Why would it want to? Would it want anything at all? In this urgent book, Yudkowsky and Soares walk through 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 under the sun. And if anyone builds it, everyone dies.

"The best no-nonsense, simple explanation of the AI risk problem I've ever read."--Yishan Wong, Former CEO of Reddit

Show More
List Price $30.00
Your Price  $29.70
Hardcover