Genesis is a book that will likely inspire you as well as cause anxiety as authors (the late) Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Craig Mundie address the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the world. My thanks for the opportunity to read an advanced review copy of this new book. The following review is my own unbiased opinion of the book.

Like me, you are probably hearing/reading a lot about AI and how it is going to change the world. AI has been compared to such innovations as the wheel and the Internet, but what we don't yet know/understand about AI is where all this is going. The authors of Genesis offers their own roadmap through a series of concise but deep one-word chapters--topics like "discovery" and "reality" and 'security" to name just a few.. The book's tone is largely philosophical, but also informative.

The authors see great promise in AI, or make that AIs, as the authors point out there will be multiple AIs doing different things and areas of specialization moving forward. But the authors also see many potential dangers and pitfalls. There are lots of quotes related to the previous sentence; here are just two:

"AI pioneers may underestimate the scope of the economic and political challenges thy have set in motion"

"AI could be directed to do what we no longer have to do, precisely so that we can do the things we want to do"

" . . .we need to apprise ourselves more fully not only of the essential and evolving nature of AI but also of humanity's own nature"

Readers will take away their own quotable quotes depending on their interests. This is a book I need to read again, as there is a lot of information. However, this book asks more questions than it does provide answers. Nevertheless, it is a good book to consider if you want to know more about AI as a societal force and where impact is most likely to occur.. I give it a four star rating.

*Genesis*, by Henry Kissenger, Eric Schmidt, and Craig Mundie is a special book on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implications for society, mostly due to the intelligence and stature of the authors. Kissinger, in particular, is a former US Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, as well as the author of many aspects of US geopolitical strategy. Schmidt is the former CEO of Google/Alphabet, as well as the founder of Schmidt Science and the founder of the Special Competitive Studies Project that arose from a particularly valuable stint co-chairing the US National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Mundie was the founder of Alliant Supercomputing and a senior advisor at Microsoft, before becoming a member of the Obama administration's PCAST. *Genesis* begins with a recap of recent history of the development of AI. The section is notable for its erudition, but doesn't in general contain information that isn't available in many other books on AI. It is in the middle part ("The Four") that focuses on Politics, Security, Prosperity, and Science where the book shines. Particularly valuable are the chapters on Politics and Security, which are among the most insightful AI writing I've read to date, perhaps unsurprisingly given Dr Kissinger's role in these fields.

The authors draw a line through the statistical impossibility of a philosopher king having excellence in both leadership and philosophy, to the emergence of a Machiavelli-like gray eminence holding the philosophical part in an advisory capacity, to Hayek's concept that Communism failed because a central authority couldn't control markets. These is a concept I first saw articulated as *Communism 2.0* in Charles Stross's *Accelerando*, but never so clearly and completely as it is here.

The only AI book I've found to date that compares with *Genesis* is Harari's recent *Nexus*. Like that book, the value in *Genesis* comes from an erudite, intelligent, and critically relevant perspective on AI's impact in society. As with Harari's book, I found myself occasionally impatient with some of the introductory chapters, but readers less obsessed with AI will no doubt find these sections valuable. But with *Nexus*, *Genesis* stands as an important commentary on AI that anyone curious about how AI will change our world will want to read.