Summary in Seconds: Intelligence did not emerge all at once. Millions of years of biological evolution gradually produced increasingly sophisticated abilities. In A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains, Max Bennett describes five major breakthroughs that shaped this journey: Together, these abilities help explain how biological intelligence became increasingly flexible and sophisticated. They also raise a fascinating question: Can understanding how intelligence evolved in living brains help us develop more capable artificial intelligence? From ancient dreams of artificial beings to modern AI systems, humanity has long sought to reproduce aspects of intelligence