The Coming Wave
"The Coming Wave" presents Deepmind co-founder Suleyman's balanced analysis of AI's societal impact. His politically realistic policy recommendations and apt historical parallels avoid both techno-utopianism and doomerism while exploring how AI will reshape geopolitics and social structures.
I finished Mustafa Suleyman's The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma over the Thanksgiving holiday. I rarely read these kinds of books. And given that I work with AI and have done significant forecasting work on its potential impact, I don't really need a primer on the risks and opportunities. However, Suleyman presents an exceptionally well-architected and supported case that's focused as much on how society is likely to respond to "the wave" as the technology itself. The book is dense with insights but is neither overly technical nor a dry slog. If you don't feel up to speed on the topic, and even if you are, this book is definitely worth your time.
What sets Suleyman's approach apart is how his policy recommendations feel genuinely grounded in political reality rather than wishful thinking. He doesn't fall into the trap of proposing elegant theoretical solutions that have no chance of implementation in our messy geopolitical landscape. The historical parallels he draws—from nuclear proliferation to biotech regulation—provide useful context without overextending the analogies. Unlike many technologists who reach for historical comparisons, Suleyman demonstrates a nuanced understanding of where these parallels hold and, crucially, where they break down. This historical literacy allows him to extract meaningful lessons about governance structures, international cooperation mechanisms, and regulatory approaches that might actually work in practice.
The book also excels in its treatment of AI's distributional effects across societies and economies. While many authors in this space focus primarily on existential risks or immediate job displacement, Suleyman takes a wider view of how these technologies will reshape geopolitics, labor markets, and social contracts. His discussions of digital authoritarianism and surveillance capitalism are particularly insightful, avoiding both alarmism and complacency. For those interested in not just what AI can do, but how its capabilities will ripple through our institutions, The Coming Wave offers a thoughtful roadmap to the near future that acknowledges both peril and possibility.
