Carl Benedikt Frey's "How Progress Ends" Set for September 2025 Release with Mustafa Suleyman Endorsement

Carl Benedikt Frey, a distinguished economist and Oxford academic, has announced the upcoming release of his new book, "How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations," slated for publication by Princeton University Press on September 16, 2025. The announcement was accompanied by a significant endorsement from Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, highlighting the book's critical insights into the intersection of technology and societal development. Frey expressed gratitude for the "blazing endorsement," noting it made the extensive writing process feel worthwhile.

Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of DeepMind and Inflection AI before joining Microsoft in March 2024 to lead its new Microsoft AI organization, lauded the book as an "epic in scope but packed with rigorous detail." His endorsement, shared by Frey, stated:

"In How Progress Ends, Carl Benedikt Frey gives a bold answer to one of history’s—and humanity’s—most essential questions: what drives technology and innovation? Epic in scope but packed with rigorous detail, it looks at what creates and reverses societal gains, asks how we should best manage the pursuit of new technologies, and hints at what, in the midst of an AI revolution, happens next. One of the key thinkers in the field, Frey delivers a grand, urgent must-read for anyone who cares about our past, present, and future."

Frey, who serves as the Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor of AI & Work at the Oxford Internet Institute and Director of the Future of Work Programme at the Oxford Martin School, is widely recognized for his research on automation's impact on labor. His 2013 study, co-authored with Michael Osborne, estimated that nearly half of U.S. jobs were susceptible to computerization, significantly influencing discussions on technological unemployment. His previous book, "The Technology Trap" (2019), explored historical parallels between industrial revolutions and modern automation.

"How Progress Ends" challenges the conventional assumption of inevitable technological and economic progress, drawing lessons from 1,000 years of global history. The book examines why societies have experienced periods of stagnation or decline despite technological advancements, from the steam engine era to the current dawn of artificial intelligence. It delves into how institutional structures, balancing decentralization and bureaucracy, are crucial for sustained innovation and growth, offering timely implications for contemporary economies.

The endorsement from a leading figure in the AI industry like Suleyman underscores the book's relevance to current debates surrounding AI's transformative potential and its societal implications. Frey's work aims to provide a historical and economic framework for understanding and navigating the complexities of technological change, particularly as AI reshapes global industries and labor markets. The book is now available for pre-order.