Community members filled Kepler’s Books in anticipation of a discussion with renowned podcaster and author Kevin Roose about his new book and the future of artificial intelligence. During the one-hour conversation, which was moderated by Robin Sloan, a novelist and media creator. Roose addressed the rise of advanced forms of AI that inspired his new book, called The AGI Chronicles.
The book is a deeply researched account drawn from over 150 interviews with key people such as Dario Amodei and Sam Altman who have shaped AI, while exploring the high-stakes race to develop artificial general intelligence, and addressing many questions about AI, such as whether progressively capable AI will align with human interests.
In his New York Times article, Roose defines Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) as “a general purpose AI system that can perform almost all cognitive tasks a human can do.” He also says he believes society is already at this point. Whether people believe this is happening in 2026 or will come later, the broader point, he writes, is that “we are losing our monopoly on human-level intelligence, and transitioning to a world with very powerful A.I. systems in it.”
“If something is smarter than us, it’s going to figure out how to escape any box we try to put it into, [and] circumvent any guardrails we try to put on it […] technology is barreling forward almost self-propelled and there’s nothing we can do about it,” Roose said, urging AI developers to start working on ways to contain AI in the short term.
Roose recognized the challenges of managing AI and acknowledged the benefits. “I think there are many times a day where there’s some document I need to produce or some decision I need to make,” Roose said. “It’s been incredibly helpful.”
The future of AI remains uncertain, but the number of engaged citizens who came to listen and learn from Roose proves that the public understands the stakes involved in this novel technology.
“[At Kepler’s], we really hope that we allow people to discover subjects that they might not know about,” program manager Heather Birchall said.
“The whole idea is that we’re a community bookstore, we welcome everyone in, and then we host these events that we really hope appeal to people,” Birchall said. “To be able to host authors who have written these incredible books is such a privilege.”
