The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025 is out now

Interviews with those at the frontier of AI research, and a guide to understanding what comes next.

The years leading up to 2025 have been characterized by a drumbeat of splashy new AI models, high-profile hiring moves, and the founding of new companies. Through his podcast, Dwarkesh Patel has offered a look inside these models and companies to help us understand what is happening at the frontier of AI research and development.

In The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019–2025—out today—Dwarkesh and Gavin Leech compile his conversations with the founders of the world’s leading AI labs, some of its most prominent boosters and skeptics, and the people adding scientific, economic, and philosophical context to the developments we’ve been living through. Interviewees include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever, and MIRI cofounder Eliezer Yudkowsky. Over 200 accompanying definitions, graphics, and footnotes help deepen our knowledge of the central concepts and broader history of AI.

The conversations in The Scaling Era help us understand what might be the most important technology of our time and give us the tools to think clearly about what comes next. As you parse the headlines and tally up the predictions, consider it an evergreen companion for the years to come—a user manual to understanding the breakneck AI progress of the past six years and a guide to separating fact from hype going forward.

Happy reading,

Rebecca Hiscott
Managing Editor