My Book Pick: The Coming Wave: AI, Power and Our Future
Aichi Insurance Physicians’ Newspaper
September 15, 2026
Mustafa Suleyman
Michael Bhaskar
Vintage
Published October 3, 2024
In Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari criticized the “A” in AI as standing for “alien.” Yet I am still amazed by AI’s ability to instantly summarize thousands of pages of documents. It is an impressive external information-processing tool. While I was reflecting on this, news broke that SoftBank Group planned to invest tens of trillions of yen in building a large-scale data center in France. What is Masayoshi Son hoping to achieve with such an enormous investment?
The Coming Wave (by Mustafa Suleyman, with Michael Bhaskar; Nikkei Business Publications, 2024) offers a broad perspective on the rapid spread of AI and its implications. It provides a detailed account of the revolutionary changes that AI and synthetic biology may bring, as well as the dangers they pose. Suleyman, a polymath and one of the founders of DeepMind, writes with the authority of someone who knows the technological frontier firsthand. He also explores how these technologies might be contained and controlled.
The book's key points include:
The convergence of two transformative technologies: The explosive progress of AI, combined with advances in synthetic biology, could bring unprecedented changes to human society.
The difficulty of containment: How can we enjoy the benefits of these technologies while controlling and containing the catastrophic risks they may bring, including misuse and loss of control?
The limits of big tech and the need for integrated governance: The book calls for new international regulations and frameworks to prevent technological developments from escaping the control of a handful of giant technology companies or individual nation-states.
As governments and companies push ahead with digital transformation (DX), I imagine that many members of our association feel uneasy about the growing use of AI. Yet workers are already losing their jobs as AI is introduced. The AI storm has begun.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the near future shaped by cutting-edge AI and biotechnology, or who is concerned about the ethical and safety challenges accompanying rapid technological progress.
