I write at and about the intersection of technology, ideas and books. See here for a complete list of writings.
My books include:
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma
NEW YORK TIMES and SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • An urgent warning of the unprecedented risks that AI and other fast-developing technologies pose to global order, and how we might contain them while we have the chance—from a co-founder of the pioneering artificial intelligence company DeepMind
“A fascinating, well-written, and important book.”—Yuval Noah Harari
“Essential reading.”—Daniel Kahneman
“An excellent guide for navigating unprecedented times.”—Bill Gates
Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award • One of Kirkus Reviews’ Most Anticipated Books of the Fall
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change.
Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organise your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.
None of us are prepared.
This groundbreaking book establishes “the containment problem”—the task of maintaining control over powerful technologies—as the essential challenge of our age.
Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking
'A fascinating, must-read book covering a vast array of topics from the arts to the sciences, technology to policy. This is a brilliant and thought-provoking response to one of the most critical questions of our age: how we will come up with the next generation of innovation and truly fresh ideas?' Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of DeepMind and Google VP
See here for the US edition (MIT Press).
The Oxford Handbook of Publishing
‘The near-impossible effort to summarize the state of publishing in an almost 500-page handbook was successful, and it is certain that this volume will find many readers across disciplines such as literary studies, book studies and media studies over the coming years’ Corinna Norrick-Rühl, SHARP News
Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Too Much
'A terrific and important book . . . it's a great, fresh take on how the 21st century is transforming the way we select everything from food to music' David Bodanis, author of E=MC2
The Content Machine: Towards a Theory of Publishing, From the Printing Press to the Digital Network
[A] sophisticated approach to what most interested readers would agree is an exceptionally daunting task. The book is detail-rich but capacious in its selection of examples and its synthesis of what the author argues are the essential elements tying together publishing circumstances that many might consider discrete or incompatible. […] Bhaskar’s treatment of familiar problematics [is] refreshingly well-reasoned and well-argued.’ Aaron McCollough, ‘Journal of Electronic Publishing’