Yudkowsky's AI Risk Book Returns to NYT Bestseller List; Royalties Go to MIRI

On September 24, MIRI founder Eliezer Yudkowsky announced that his AI risk book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (IABIED) had returned to the New York Times bestseller list. He expressed relief that the public is starting to "wake up," sorrow about the approaching prospect of recursive self-improvement (RSI), and disclosed the royalty arrangement while rebutting accusations that he wrote the book for money.

Confirmed

• IABIED returned to the NYT bestseller list; Yudkowsky posted a series of tweets about it on September 24.
• Royalties: the first 1 million or 2 million dollars (he says he can't recall the exact figure) go to MIRI; he and co-author Nate Soares have so far received no personal income from the book.
• Publisher Hachette said the book's sales have been unusually durable over the past year (though not always at NYT list levels), and Yudkowsky recalls several countries selling out entire print runs with multiple reprints.
• Yudkowsky described mixed feelings about congratulations: the book was written under extraordinarily grim circumstances, and he'd rather be congratulated for HPMOR; the "public awakening" behind rising sales is worth celebrating, but the facts driving that awakening are depressing.

Why it matters

• Facing online accusations that "you AI safety people are in it for the money," Yudkowsky countered that if they truly weren't predicting humanity would soon die from AI, they could have ridden the AI boom and made vastly more money—a defense corroborated by his disclosure of zero personal royalties, and one of the core motivations for the tweetstorm.
• The book's sustained sales show that AI existential risk remains a topic of strong public interest, and Yudkowsky's pessimism about RSI has re-entered public discussion alongside the sales.

2026-09-24 ~ 2026-09-24 · 7 related posts

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• [source] Yudkowsky: first $1M-$2M of IABIED royalties go to MIRI, authors earn nothing yet — ESYudkowsky · 2026-09-24
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• Hachette: IABIED saw unusually sustained year-long sales, multiple printings abroad — ESYudkowsky · 2026-09-24