The best popular-science books of October 2026
With a new book from the late primatologist Frans de Waal and a deep dive into artificial intelligence from New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose, there is some hard-hitting popular science to look forward to this month – with added Pokémon, says Liz Else
The AGI Chronicles by Kevin Roose is a vital read for those returning to the world post their time in isolation. This book seeks to provide an insider's perspective on the race to create artificial general intelligence (AGI) through over 150 interviews with executives from major companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind. Roose's work explores the efforts of these tech giants to develop the most powerful technology in history, capable of outperforming humans at almost every task.
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