Bodley Head pre-empts ‘landmark’ technology warning from co-founder of Google’s DeepMind

The Bodley Head has signed Containment is Not Possible: How Technology Fails and What We Should Do About It by Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google’s DeepMind.

Publishing director Stuart Williams acquired UK rights in a pre-emptive deal from Sophie Lambert at C&W. US rights were sold to David Drake and Paul Whitlatch at Crown in an exclusive deal by Tina Bennett at Bennett Literary. Containment Is Not Possible will be published in October 2023.

Grounded in history and frontline experience, the publisher says the book will be a “sweeping and provocative exploration of the powerful wave of advancing technologies including AI and genetic engineering that will reach maturity in the coming years, creating a series of unprecedented new risks".

Suleyman offers “a landmark warning that, as the window to contain these technologies grows narrow – and as they further undermine the nation state and global order – humans must look beyond efforts like regulation and toward more radical defensive measures to live alongside them”.

Suleyman is the co-founder and c.e.o. of Inflection AI and a venture partner at Greylock, a venture capital firm. Before that, he co-founded DeepMind and was vice president of AI product management and AI policy at Google.

He said: “One thing is clear from my life and career in technology so far: if containing this coming wave of new technologies like AI and synthetic biology is not possible, the consequences for our species are dire. This book is my attempt to understand the road ahead and figure out what we all need to do about it. Time is running out for us to face this together.”