The Making of the Atomic Bomb

The Bitter Rivalries Behind the Race to Build Superintelligence

Plain English with Derek Thompson, 6 October 2026. The book comes up at 26 min 17 sec in.

Discussed as Dario Amadei's favorite book and a key to understanding his motivations. The transcript describes the story of Leo Szilard—who discovered nuclear chain reaction but tried to suppress the secret from the Nazis, then concluded the moral course was to build the bomb first—as a direct parallel to Amadei's approach to AI safety. Amadei gave copies to new Anthropic employees. Derek Thompson calls it a great book and explicitly encourages listeners to read it.

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