Supremacy

Winner of the FT Business Book of the Year 2024

By: Parmy Olson

Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan

Winner of the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2024

'A clear and compelling read about one of the most consequential races in the world' - Madhumita Murgia, bestselling author of Code Dependent and AI Editor for The Financial Times

Discover the never-before-told story of the ruthless shadow race between Microsoft and Google, as both compete to develop a mass-market AI while juggling existential questions of ethics, human progress and the future of the world as we know it.

"They declined his offer too, not realizing how much the thin-skinned Musk didn’t like it when people said no. Soon enough though, Hassabis got another email. This time, it was from Google."

When ChatGPT was released, the world changed overnight. Even as we all played with the new toy, a very real danger was quickly coming to light: that untested automations would undermine our way of life insidiously, sucking value out of our economy, replacing high-level creative jobs and enabling a new, terrifying era of disinformation.

It was never meant to be this way. The founders of the two companies behind the most advanced AIs in existence – Open AI (ChatGPT) and DeepMind (Bard) – started their journeys determined to solve humanity’s greatest problems. But they couldn’t develop their technologies without huge amounts of money – money that Microsoft and Google were more than happy to give them, in exchange for the most powerful seats at the table.

From award-winning journalist Parmy Olson, Supremacy is the astonishing, untold, behind-the-scenes story of the battle between two AI companies, their struggles to use their tech for good, and the dangerous direction that they’re now going in. Featuring a cast of larger-than-life characters, including Elon Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Peter Thiel, Supremacy is a story of manipulation, exploitation, secrecy and of ruthless, relentless human progress – progress that will impact all of us for years to come.

'Makes the topic of AI approachable and entertaining by telling the human stories of the people building AI companies. There is never a dull moment in this gripping book' - Arvind Narayanan, Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University

'Money, power, and a bargain that may change the world frame this timely and deeply researched account of two of the biggest players in the race to AI' - Gary Marcus, author of Taming Silicon Valley and Professor Emeritus at New York University

Critic reviews

A clear and compelling read about one of the most consequential races in the world – the invention of artificial general intelligence – filled with surprising and juicy details about the powerful men at the heart of it. The deep research in Supremacy reveals startling news and facts as yet unreported about two of the world’s most scrutinized companies (Madhumita Murgia, bestselling author of Code Dependent and AI Editor for the Financial Times)

Supremacy makes the topic of artificial intelligence approachable and entertaining by telling the human stories of the people building AI companies. There is never a dull moment in this gripping book (Arvind Narayanan, bestselling author of AI Snake Oil and Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University)

Money, power, and a [Faustian] bargain that may change the world frame this timely and deeply researched account of two of the biggest players in the race to AI (Gary Marcus, bestselling author of Taming Silicon Valley and Professor Emeritus at New York University)

Parmy Olson is that rare author who writes with technological expertise about artificial intelligence without losing track of the underlying humanity informing its arrival. She’s intimately familiar with AI’s roots and reach, and she’s drawn a rich blueprint for understanding the revolution it heralds (Bloomberg Opinion)

A well-researched account of the personal and corporate obsession to develop a superintelligence (Financial Times)

Compelling...[a] warning to us peons to take back control (The Times)

It's a riveting tale, and Olson is a compelling storyteller (New Scientist)

Fantastic . . . I just couldn't recommend it more (Fi Glover, broadcaster and journalist)

A great read to understand the impact of AI

A great read to understand the impact of AI and how it has evolved in the last 10 years. Who leads it and what resources are required to evolve it further, whether for good or bad.

A truly entertaining audiobook.

Entertainment: 9/10
Practicality: 9/10.
A thrilling and honest account of how tech giants are vying to win the AI race. You'll find plenty of insider info that's not publicly available. Highly recommend this audiobook!

Interesting and entertaining

This book was almost like a fiction novel. It made a dry topic very interesting and entertaining