Superagency - by Reid Hoffman & Greg Beato (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller.

Tech visionary and co-founder of Manas AI Reid Hoffman shares his unique insider's perspective on an AI-powered future, making the case for its potential to unlock a world of possibilities.

"An essential companion." -- Fei-Fei Li
"An important read." --Bill Gates
"Brilliant mind. Compassionate heart. Bold ideas...Read this book!" --Van Jones
"Refreshingly optimistic and welcome perspective." -- Ariana Huffington
"A fascinating and insightful book." --Yuval Noah Harari

As taught at UPenn's Wharton and Stanford.

Superagency offers a roadmap for using AI inclusively and adaptively to improve our lives and create positive change. While acknowledging challenges like disinformation and potential job changes, the book focuses on AI's immense potential to increase individual agency and create better outcomes for society as a whole.

Imagine AI tutors personalizing education for each child, researchers rapidly discovering cures for diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer, and AI advisors empowering people to navigate complex systems and achieve their goals. Hoffman and co-author, tech and culture writer Greg Beato envision a world where these possibilities, and many more, become a reality.

Superagency challenges conventional fears, inviting us to view the future through a lens of opportunity, rather than fear. It's a call to action - to embrace AI with excitement and actively shape a world where human ingenuity and the power of AI combine to create something extraordinary.

Entrepreneur Reid Hoffman is a co-founder of LinkedIn, Inflection AI, and Manas AI. He is also host of the podcasts Possible and Masters of Scale.

Review Quotes

"Parts of this book will surprise readers who are expecting predictable Silicon Valley techno-optimism. Hoffman and Beato are indeed optimistic about an AI-powered future, but they are also deeply and sincerely humanistic in ways that we need. The combination is an important contribution to a vital public debate."--Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America and Princeton Professor Emerita

"Superagency is a fascinating and insightful book, providing humanity with a bright vision for the age of AI. I disagree with some of its main arguments, but I nevertheless hope they are right. Read it and judge for yourself." --Yuval Noah Harari, author of Nexus and Sapiens

"Superagency is a refreshingly optimistic and welcome perspective on the future of AI. Rather than focusing on fear and disruption, Reid uses his "techno-humanist compass" to show how AI can help us make better decisions, achieve our goals, and create a more equitable and sustainable world. This is a must-read for thriving in the age of AI." --Arianna Huffington, Founder & CEO, Thrive Global

"Superagency provides an essential lens on how AI can address some of the most pressing global challenges of our time and ensure that everyone in society can benefit from this technology. An important read."--Bill Gates

"Artificial Intelligence is a set of ideas humanity has pondered since antiquity with a mix of trepidation and excitement. Now, in the early days of the 21st century we've digitized a huge fraction of human experience, and through rapid advances in computer science and basic computing infrastructure have finally started to realize some of the long promises of AI. Superagency is an important work, an encouragement to us all to think about how to harness the power of AI to amplify and enhance humanity. It asks us to imagine how to use this tool to give each of us a form of super agency with which we can create, connect, and invent more, and to nudge us to do what humans have always done: to become more essentially human through the use of our tools. The AI future that we build for ourselves will be entirely a function of our best collective imagination, our hopes and dreams for the problems we can solve with this technology, and the benefits we can create for ourselves and each other by making the most of AI's vast potential."--Kevin Scott, CTO of Microsoft

"As Chair of Stanford's HAI advisory council, entrepreneur, investor, podcaster, and author, Reid is a crucial advocate of a future where AI unlocks new levels of creativity, productivity, and problem-solving that will help humanity achieve extraordinary things. Superagency is an essential companion to that work as it continues to explore why human-centered AI will be critical to a brighter future for us all."--Fei-Fei Li, AI Pioneer, Co-Director of HAI and Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University

"At a time when artificial intelligence is generating justifiable fears and excitement; exposing deep societal concerns and unlimited human potential, Reid Hoffman has emerged both as a trailblazing AI visionary and an invaluable thought leader on the nexus of technology and humanity. Reid has such deep knowledge about the human condition and a yearning for us to have a bolder moral imagination about how we can create a more caring, connected, and fulfilling society. For me, Superagency is a must read. Anyone who hopes this emerging technology, despite its potential challenges and shortcomings, can empower us all to create a more beloved community, would be wise to immerse themselves in Reid's wisdom."--Senator Cory Booker

"For years, those who fear AI have been dominating the airwaves. The world needs to hear more from leaders who see the potential for good in this powerful, new technology. With this book, Reid Hoffman continues his quest to engage humanity in a much-needed discussion about how we might use AI to create a brighter future that works for more people...Brilliant mind. Compassionate heart. Bold ideas...Read this book!"--Van Jones, CNN host & bestselling author of Beyond The Messy Truth

"In Superagency, Reid Hoffman brilliantly accomplishes what he so often does: assess challenges, present solutions, and work toward equitable opportunities. Workers will increasingly use personal, organizational, business process, and cross-organizational agents as trustworthy tools to increase value and solve complex problems. Through experience, research, and humor, Reid reminds us that new technologies like electricity--even publishing books at scale--once seemed threatening."--Satya Nadella, Chairman & CEO Microsoft

"Reid has been a great partner from the earliest days of OpenAI. Reid helped us navigate many challenges and opportunities as a board member, investor, and advisor. Superagency is an excellent vision to steer towards: where AI brings a renaissance of human agency and quality of life for everyone."--Greg Brockman, President and Co-Founder of OpenAI

About the Author

Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn, co-founder of Inflection AI, and a partner at Greylock. He currently serves on the boards of companies such as Aurora, Coda, Entrepreneur First, Microsoft, and Nauto. He also serves on nonprofit boards, such as Kiva, Endeavor, CZI Biohub, New America, Opportunity@Work, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and the MacArthur Foundation's Lever for Change.

He is the host of the Masters of Scale podcast, as well as the Possible podcast. He is the co-author of five best-selling books: The Startup of You, The Alliance, Blitzscaling, Masters of Scale, and Impromptu. He earned a master's degree in philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a bachelor's degree with distinction in symbolic systems from Stanford University.

Greg Beato has been writing about technology and culture since the early days of the World Wide Web. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Reason, Spin, Slate, Buzzfeed, The Guardian, and more than 100 other publications worldwide.