From The Greats
Superintelligence
Editorial guidance
Explore arguments about advanced AI and its risks.
Recommended by Sam Altman — recommendation evidence.
Open the bookBooks recommended by AI founders and researchers
A focused path through documented recommendations from AI builders and researchers. Open a source to see what they said.
AI builders and researchersSources linkedCitations labeled
28Evidence records
8People
28Books
Start here
For readers exploring machine intelligence and the history of computing.
Editorial starting points from From The Greats. Level, prerequisites, learning goals and reading order are our guidance, not statements attributed to the recommenders. Inspect their actual recommendation evidence below.
Godel, Escher, Bach
Editorial guidance
Explore connections between formal systems, minds, and computation.
Recommended by Demis Hassabis — recommendation evidence.
Open the bookGame Changer
Editorial guidance
Follow the development of machine learning for chess.
Recommended by Demis Hassabis — recommendation evidence.
Open the bookFeatured people
Explore a selection of people with documented recommendations in this collection.
Sam Altman
CEO, OpenAI; former head, Y Combinator
6 books recommended here
Sebastian Raschka
AI and machine learning researcher
6 books recommended here
Chip Huyen
AI engineer and ML systems educator
5 books recommended here
Peter Norvig
AI and machine learning researcher
4 books recommended here
Demis Hassabis
Co-founder & CEO, Google DeepMind
2 books recommended here
Jensen Huang
Co-founder and CEO, Nvidia
2 books recommended hereFeatured books
Start with these books, then open their profiles to see who recommended them and why.
Build a Large Language Model (From Scratch)
Recommended by Chip Huyen.
Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life
Recommended by Chip Huyen.
Concepts, Techniques, and Models of Computer Programming
Recommended by Peter Norvig.
Dealers of Lightning
Recommended by Sam Altman.
Deep Learning with PyTorch
Recommended by Sebastian Raschka.
Dive into Deep Learning
Recommended by Jensen Huang.
Game Changer
Recommended by Demis Hassabis.
Godel, Escher, Bach
Recommended by Demis Hassabis.
Featured recommendation evidence
A preview of documented recommendations. Mention-only and citation-only records are separate context; documented citations classified as recommendations are included.
Affiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission when you buy through some links. Recommendations are included because of the source, not because of the retailer. Details
Only the Paranoid Survive
Fortune reports that Huang told Acquired he really enjoyed Andrew Grove's business books and that they were all really good; Fortune identifies Only the Paranoid Survive among those Grove books.
Recommended · Wording not verified
Source: Fortune
Evidence details
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says his AI powerhouse is 'always in peril' despite a $1.1 trillion market capHuang was asked on Acquired for favorite business books he had taken something from. He praised Andrew Grove's books as really good, and Fortune identifies Only the Paranoid Survive among those Grove books. Fortune is used as the public row source because it verifies the specific title.
This text documents what the source says, but it is not verified as a word-for-word quote.
Fortune · 2023-11-11 · accessed 2026-06-22
Article · Reported podcast title identification
Fortune reports that Huang told Acquired he had read Andrew Grove's business books, called them really good, and identifies Only the Paranoid Survive among those Grove books. The Acquired transcript supplies the favorite-business-books prompt and Grove-books praise.
Superintelligence
Incidentally, Nick Bostrom's excellent book "Superintelligence" is the best thing I've seen on this topic. It is well worth a read.
Recommended · Exact quote
Source: Sam Altman
Evidence details
Machine intelligence, part 1Altman recommended Superintelligence inside a post about why superhuman machine intelligence could become an existential risk.
The quote is taken word for word from the source.
Sam Altman · undated · accessed 2026-06-21
Article · Personal blog post
Altman's own blog post calls Bostrom's Superintelligence excellent, the best thing he has seen on the topic, and well worth a read.
Zero to One
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed Zero to One.
Recommended · Wording not verified
Source: Hacker News / Algolia API
Evidence details
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup foundersThe title appears in the transcribed Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books Altman recommends for a young startup founder.
This text documents what the source says, but it is not verified as a word-for-word quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
Comment · HN transcript of Twitter AMA answer
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.
How Not to Be Wrong
Chip Huyen
Huyen includes this work among her favorite engineering books and provides a positive personal review in her own reader-facing list.
Recommended · Wording not verified
Source: Chip Huyen
Evidence details
Books that made me think (as an engineer)Personal engineering reading list. The Society of Mind is misspelled as Minds in the source; its canonical title is independently verified. Recommendations are separate from Huyen’s authored books.
This text documents what the source says, but it is not verified as a word-for-word quote.
Chip Huyen · 2022-12-27 · accessed 2026-10-05
Article · Personal favorite engineering books
Huyen includes this work among her favorite engineering books and provides a positive personal review in her own reader-facing list.
Godel, Escher, Bach
Tying together Godel's incompleteness theory with mathematics, with Escher's drawings, and Bach's fugues. And showing they're all related in some way.
Recommended · Exact quote
Source: YouTube
Evidence details
Demis Hassabis: The interviewHassabis described the book while discussing works that influenced how he thinks about minds and intelligence.
The quote is taken word for word from the source.
YouTube · timestamp 22:56 · accessed 2026-06-17
Video · YouTube interview clip
Timestamped source link discovered from a public recommendation index and retained as the original video source URL.
Dealers of Lightning
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed Dealers of Lightning.
Recommended · Wording not verified
Source: Hacker News / Algolia API
Evidence details
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup foundersThe title appears in the transcribed Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books Altman recommends for a young startup founder.
This text documents what the source says, but it is not verified as a word-for-word quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
Comment · HN transcript of Twitter AMA answer
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.
Hold 'em Poker
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed Hold 'em Poker.
Recommended · Wording not verified
Source: Hacker News / Algolia API
Evidence details
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup foundersThe title appears in the transcribed Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books Altman recommends for a young startup founder.
This text documents what the source says, but it is not verified as a word-for-word quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
Comment · HN transcript of Twitter AMA answer
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.
The Principia
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman's Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder and listed The Principia.
Recommended · Wording not verified
Source: Hacker News / Algolia API
Evidence details
Sam Altman AMA transcript comment on recommended books for young startup foundersThe title appears in the transcribed Twitter AMA answer to a question about the best books Altman recommends for a young startup founder.
This text documents what the source says, but it is not verified as a word-for-word quote.
Hacker News / Algolia API · 2015-10-21 · accessed 2026-06-22
Comment · HN transcript of Twitter AMA answer
A Hacker News commenter transcribed Altman answering a Twitter AMA question about the best books he recommends for a young startup founder; Altman later confirmed the disputed Art of War in the Middle Ages title in the same thread.