The coming wave

An urgent warning of the unprecedented risks that a wave of fast-developing technologies poses to global order, and how we might contain them while we have the chance—from a cofounder of the pioneering artificial intelligence company DeepMind We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon we will live surrounded by AIs. They will carry out complex tasks—operating businesses, producing unlimited digital content, running core government services and maintaining infrastructure. This will be a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy. It represents nothing less than a step change in human capability.