If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies Audiobook By Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nate Soares cover art

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All

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"May prove to be the most important book of our time.”—Tim Urban, Wait But Why

The scramble to create superhuman AI has put us on the path to extinction—but it’s not too late to change course, as two of the field’s earliest researchers explain in this clarion call for humanity.

In 2023, hundreds of AI luminaries signed an open letter warning that artificial intelligence poses a serious risk of human extinction. Since then, the AI race has only intensified. Companies and countries are rushing to build machines that will be smarter than any person. And the world is devastatingly unprepared for what would come next.

For decades, two signatories of that letter—Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares—have studied how smarter-than-human intelligences will think, behave, and pursue their objectives. Their research says that sufficiently smart AIs will develop goals of their own that put them in conflict with us—and that if it comes to conflict, an artificial superintelligence would crush us. The contest wouldn’t even be close.

How could a machine superintelligence wipe out our entire species? Why would it want to? Would it want anything at all? In this urgent book, Yudkowsky and Soares walk through the theory and the evidence, present one possible extinction scenario, and explain what it would take for humanity to survive.

The world is racing to build something truly new under the sun. And if anyone builds it, everyone dies.

“The best no-nonsense, simple explanation of the AI risk problem I've ever read.”—Yishan Wong, Former CEO of Reddit

Accolades & Awards

Best of 2025
Best of 2025 Computer Science History & Culture Politics & Government Public Policy Science & Technology Technology & Society Scary Artificial Intelligence Suspenseful Inspiring Technology

Critic reviews

“The most important book of the decade. This captivating page-turner, from two of today’s clearest thinkers, reveals that the competition to build smarter-than-human machines isn’t an arms race but a suicide race, fueled by wishful thinking."—Max Tegmark, author of Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of AI
“If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies may prove to be the most important book of our time. Yudkowsky and Soares believe we are nowhere near ready to make the transition to superintelligence safely, leaving us on the fast track to extinction. Through the use of parables and crystal-clear explainers, they convey their reasoning, in an urgent plea for us to save ourselves while we still can.”—Tim Urban, cofounder, Wait But Why
“The most important book I’ve read for years: I want to bring it to every political and corporate leader in the world and stand over them until they’ve read it. Yudkowsky and Soares, who have studied AI and its possible trajectories for decades, sound a loud trumpet call to humanity to awaken us as we sleepwalk into disaster.”—Stephen Fry
“The best no-nonsense, simple explanation of the AI risk problem I've ever read.”—Yishan Wong, former CEO of Reddit
“Soares and Yudkowsky lay out, in plain and easy-to-follow terms, why our current path toward ever-more-powerful AIs is extremely dangerous.”—Emmett Shear, former interim CEO of OpenAI
“Everyone should read this book. There’s a 70% chance that you—yes, you reading this right now—will one day grudgingly admit that we all should have listened to Yudkowsky and Soares when we still had the chance."—Daniel Kokotajlo, AI Futures Project
"A compelling introduction to the world's most important topic. Artificial general intelligence could be just a few years away. This is one of the few books that takes the implications seriously, published right as the danger level begins to spike."—Scott Alexander, founder, Astral Codex Ten
“Claims about the risks of AI are often dismissed as advertising, but this book disproves it. Yudkowsky and Soares are not from the AI industry, and have been writing about these risks since before it existed in its present form. Read their disturbing book and tell us what they get wrong.”—Huw Price, Bertrand Russell Professor Emeritus, Trinity College, Cambridge
Clear Explanations • Accessible Concepts • Excellent Narration • Compelling Arguments • Thought-provoking Content

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
First, the substance. Despite what you might suspect from the over-the-top title, these authors are highly respected experts who helped found modern AI, so they're definitely worth listening to. While warnings around the dangers of General AI have been swirling around in the press for several years, this book makes a strong argument that we need to pay attention and put on the brakes on General Artificial Intelligence. I plan to look for counter-arguments from similar experts next, but this books is very convincing.
Next, the writing. This book is incredibly well written. It was funny and engaging while explaining complex concepts clearly and creatively. You don't need any special understanding of computer science or programming to follow their arguments. I loved the use of parables to illustrate various points (e.g., developing an AI model is not like designing a rocket to specific specifications; it's more like giving birth to a baby and trying to guess what kind of adult it will be by examining its DNA). I zoomed through this book in one day and laughed quite a bit (helped along by the excellent narrator)...until I got to the later chapters where the authors explain how the development of General AI - with our current limited understanding of how it works - could doom us all. After finishing the book, I was convinced that the title wasn't over-the-top after all.
I plan to read a bit more on this topic, and unless I find convincing counter-arguments, I'll be reaching out to policy makers to urge them to start regulating this technology in a meaningful way, and perhaps spare us all.

Surprisingly entertaining but also terrifying!

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What you get is a well-reasoned and thorough argument on AI policy, and an idea of what horrible consequences await us if our policy-makers and journalists fail us.

It's hard to understate how important it is for this message to reach the right decision-makers and thought-leaders.

These individuals need to hear and understand the central message of this book: Please stop. Don't just slow down, or lean on some techno-optimist crutch, or blindly accept ultimatums like "Embrace AI or get out". Stop!

And learn WHY - by reading and understanding the argument in this book.

This book is an alarm, and everyone needs to understand why it is wailing

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Unmatched in intellect and easy to understand. This is a must read for every technology leader, politician and other leaders in society.

Most important book of all times

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Scary facts that none of us can grasp, hoping for the best doesn’t cut it

Right to the point and right it is

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More dangerous than an atomic bomb. The subject of AI is poorly understood by the vast majority of people. Here you have factual information about the pursuit of a high level AI that has a substantial risk of destroying us. Even all the job displacements will change life as we know it, but there are much greater risks than that…

A Clarion call to the world

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