Book summary
The Coming Wave: book summary
by Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar
I must admit, I’m a little fearful of what the future holds. Best for Leaders who still think the coming wave is only AI. Toby's rating: 8/10 — read it.
Notes by Toby Sinclair · 18 Feb 2024 · 4 min read
Toby's rating
8/10
Recommended for Leaders who still think the coming wave is only AI
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3 big ideas
Biotech is the part most leaders are still not looking at.
We've all heard about AI. Suleyman's point that landed for me is synthetic biology: a single person today likely "has the capacity to kill a billion people." The wave is two technologies, not one. Leaders who only brief on ChatGPT are watching the wrong horizon.
Containment is the job.
These technologies spread faster than anyone can govern them. For a workplace leader that is not an abstract policy debate. It is the tension between using AI for advantage and putting real limits around it — jobs, privacy, what you will and will not automate — before the tool makes the decision for you.
Access is not the same as control.
As the tools get cheaper, more people can build, copy, and deploy them. That flattens power inside and outside the organisation. The response is not a training day. It is deciding who gets the tools, what they are allowed to do with them, and what happens when they go wrong.
Written from the seat of a practising organisational leader — not an AI recap of the book. Cite as Toby Sinclair, book summary of The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar.
Toby's takeaway
The coming wave is AI and synthetic biology.
I still chose to build with AI. That work became Real Talk Studio — so people can practise the conversations that matter, with avatars who push back, before they happen for real.
I must admit, I’m a little fearful of what the future holds. Even more so after this book. Biotech was a risk I had not even considered.
Fear-Setting is how I work with that fear: make the worst case specific, then decide.
Should you read this?
"Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs... None of us are prepared."
I read this to understand AI. I finished it more worried about biology.
If you lead people through technology change and still think AI is the whole story, read it. It will prepare you. It might also scare you.
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Best quotes
“Over time, then, the implications of these technologies will push humanity to navigate a path between the poles of catastrophe and dystopia. This is the essential dilemma of our age.”
“Within the next couple of years, whatever your job, you will be able to consult an on-demand expert… It is a leap in cognitive potential at least as great as the introduction of the internet.”
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Questions
- Should I read The Coming Wave?
- I must admit, I’m a little fearful of what the future holds. Best for Leaders who still think the coming wave is only AI. Toby's rating: 8/10 — read it.
- Who is The Coming Wave for?
- Recommended for Leaders who still think the coming wave is only AI.
- What is Toby Sinclair's rating of The Coming Wave?
- 8 out of 10.
If the ideas landed, read the book.
Buy The Coming Wave on Amazon