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The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025
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How did we build large language models? How do they think, if they think? What will the world look like if we have billions of AIs that are as smart as humans, or even smarter?
In a series of in-depth interviews with leading AI researchers and company founders—including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, MIRI cofounder Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—Dwarkesh Patel provides the first comprehensive and contemporary portrait of the technology that is transforming our world.
Drawn from his interviews on the Dwarkesh Podcast, these curated excerpts range from the technical details of how LLMs work to the possibility of an AI takeover or explosive economic growth. Patel’s conversations cut through the noise to explore the topics most compelling to those at the forefront of the field: the power of scaling, the potential for misalignment, the sheer input required for AGI, and the economic and social ramifications of superintelligence.
The book is also a standalone introduction to the technology. It includes over 170 definitions and visualizations, explanations of technical points made by guests, classic essays on the theme from other writers, and unpublished interviews with Open Philanthropy research analyst Ajeya Cotra and Anthropic cofounder Jared Kaplan.
The Scaling Era offers readers unprecedented insight into a transformative moment in the development of AI—and a vision of what comes next.
- ISBN-101953953557
- ISBN-13978-1953953551
- PublisherStripe Press
- Publication dateOctober 8, 2025
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.25 x 2 x 9.25 inches
- Print length248 pages
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From the Publisher
Distilled conversations with top AI researchers and leaders.
“Dwarkesh has done a whole series of excellent video interviews with top AI researchers and engineers, and this book is a great distillation of those conversations to help people understand modern AI models, how they are built, where they are headed, and why they are important.”
—Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind and Google Research
Quotes for the history books.
“Dwarkesh’s interviews are full of quotes that will be in history books.”
—Byrne Hobart, investor, consultant, and author of The Diff and Boom
More informative than using a newly released LLM.
“There’s only one test relevant for an artifact about AI: Would you learn more from reading it than you would from using a newly released LLM for the equivalent amount of time? The Scaling Era handily passes.”
—Patrick McKenzie, author of Bits About Money and host of Complex Systems
About the author
Dwarkesh Patel is the host of Dwarkesh Podcast, where he produces deeply researched interviews with both obscure intellectuals and the most influential figures of our time.
About the editor
Gavin Leech is the cofounder of Arb Research, a consultancy that does empirical work, conceptual work, and forecasting on spec in various fields. He has a PhD in AI.
About the publisher
Stripe Press publishes ideas for progress in science, technology, and economics. Our collection includes new ideas from emerging and established thinkers and industry leaders, as well as reimagined editions of enduring works. We curate our titles for a global audience of builders and practitioners who are shaping the future of policy and industry.
Stripe Press is based in South San Francisco, with team members across the US and in London. We are a part of the global payments infrastructure company Stripe.
Recent titles by Stripe Press:
- Boom by Byrne Hobart and Tobias Huber
- Poor Charlie's Almanack by Charles T. Munger and Peter D. Kaufman
- Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson
Editorial Reviews
Review
—Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind and Google Research
“There’s only one test relevant for an artifact about AI: Would you learn more from reading it than you would from using a newly released LLM for the equivalent amount of time? The Scaling Era handily passes.”
—Patrick McKenzie, author of Bits About Money and host of Complex Systems
“Dwarkesh’s interviews are full of quotes that will be in history books.”
—Byrne Hobart, investor, consultant, and author of The Diff and Boom
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Stripe Press
- Publication date : October 8, 2025
- Language : English
- Print length : 248 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1953953557
- ISBN-13 : 978-1953953551
- Item Weight : 1.22 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 2 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #39,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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