Sutskever's List (MEAP 02)

“If you really learn all of these, you’ll know 90% of what matters today.”
– Ilya Sutskever

AI is transforming the world faster than we could have imagined. But how did we get here? AI guru Ilya Sutskever made the bold claim that most of what you need to know about modern AI is captured in 30 seminal research papers on deep learning.

What did Ilya see? Read through Sutskever’s List and you’ll uncover the breakthroughs, ideas, and mental models that shaped his vision and much more, all clearly explained and interpreted by veteran author and teacher Richard Heimann. You’ll discover:

The technical breakthroughs that have shaped AI strategy, safety, and cultural shifts
How to decode landmark AI papers—from AlexNet to Transformers
Engineering patterns and design choices that scale from research to real-world systems
Evaluating the strengths and limits of deep learning without falling for hype or cynicism
Applying Sutskever’s mental models to forecast and navigate future AI trends

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever is one of the most important figures in modern deep learning. Along with developing the GPT models, he is the originator of the famous “Sutskever’s List”—a reading list of 30 research papers that cover “90% of what matters” in AI. In Sutskever’s List, AI expert Rich Heimann dives into each of these influential and vitally-important papers, revealing the breakthroughs that shaped Ilya’s thinking and the entire AI field.
about the book
In Sutskever’s List, author Rich Heimann takes you on a tour through Sutskever’s List in his accessible and insightful style, unpacking each paper with clear explanations, vivid historical anecdotes, and examples that connect lab results to real-world consequences. You’ll follow the story of modern AI, from scaling laws to internal organizational politics, as Rich demystifies the complex research and simple human choices that gave rise to artificial intelligence. And unlike the 30 amazing papers Rich interprets, this accessible book requires no specialist knowledge!