Kevin Roose on AI: “We are faced with very intelligent, charming sociopaths”

Updated on: October 1, 2026 / 11:57 AM EDT / CBS News

The world is awakening to the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence amid a barrage of reports about AI agents defying their human creators. In reality, however, the story stretches back to Silicon Valley, where AI was born.

So how did we get here, exactly? That's the question technology journalist Kevin Roose seeks to answer in his new book, "The AGI Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence," set for release on Oct. 6. The book documents the race between some of the nation's largest technology companies to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), or AI that in most ways possesses human-level intelligence.

"What happened during the decade when AI went from being pretty dumb at most things to being able to solve century-old math and science problems?" Roose, formerly a longtime tech reporter at The New York Times and soon to be co-host of the forthcoming podcast "Machine Gods," told CBS News. "My feeling was, someone needs to write this all down."

The book arrives at a critical moment. The latest generative AI models show startling capabilities, with proponents for the technology claiming…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/