Pages
352
Year
2024
Level
beginner
Read time
9h
Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar · The Bodley Head (Penguin UK) · 2024
Reviewed by Ashish Sheth · Updated April 2026
The Coming Wave
Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
4.2 / 5
AMAZON · 4.9K RATINGS
ai society
SUBJECTS
What you'll come away with
01.
AI is one wave; combined with biotech and robotics, the implications multiply
02.
The 'containment problem' framing for what regulation has to solve
03.
Why every general-purpose technology has eventually proliferated
04.
Specific risks: bioweapons, autonomous weapons, mass disinformation
05.
Insider context from someone who's built frontier AI labs twice
06.
A concrete 10-step containment proposal you can argue with
Strengths
+Insider authority — Suleyman has built the labs he's writing about
+Bigger frame than most AI books — covers biotech and robotics together
+Concrete proposals, not just hand-wringing
+Accessible to non-technical readers
Caveats
−Some readers find the tone alarmist or self-serving (Suleyman runs Microsoft AI)
−Less hands-on than developers might want — strategic, not technical
−Containment proposals are debated and not universally seen as practical
★ 4.2 FROM 4.9K READERS ON AMAZON
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Read this if
→Developers who want context beyond 'how to fine-tune'
→Tech leaders evaluating where AI fits in 5–10 year planning
→Anyone interested in AI policy, regulation, or societal impact
Skip this if
—Engineers wanting code, models, or implementation details
—Skeptics looking for a takedown of AI hype — this is broadly believer-coded
—Readers wanting deep ML theory
Head-to-head comparisons
The Coming Wave vs Co-Intelligence → The Coming Wave vs AI Engineering → The Coming Wave vs Designing Machine Learning Systems → Frequently asked
Is The Coming Wave technical?
No. It's a strategic and policy book aimed at general readers. You won't write better code after reading it. You will think differently about where the field is going.
How is this different from Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick?
Mollick is practical and personal — how to use AI today. Suleyman is strategic and macro — what AI plus biotech does to society. Different scopes; both worth reading.
Is the book biased given Suleyman's role at Microsoft AI?
Yes, you should read it knowing he runs one of the largest AI labs. He's transparent about that. The arguments still stand on their own, but apply normal critical reading.
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