“AI – which is controlled by the wealthy and powerful – accelerates many threatening processes. And it is too late to stop it.
“Think about the one-tenth of one percent holding 99.9% of today’s global wealth in all countries. AI will make the rich richer, the poor poorer, and the differential will be substantially greater by 2040. Fascists will dominate nearly all governments, including that of the U.S.
“AI will drive further dangerous military activity and intelligence gathering. Global warming and pandemics will significantly worsen by then; all coastal communities across the world will be covered by water and island nations across the globe may disappear.
“AI adds greater velocity to the vector of humanity’s troubles. The death toll from all of this will be frighteningly epic. The planet will survive. Humans will too. But I believe billions will die in the next few decades from conflict, pandemics, global warming (starvation, flooding, drought, dead oceans) and more. People will perish before our eyes and get no help.
“This all seems inevitable to me. Earth’s population will shrink to one-tenth of today’s number. Wake up and smell the gunfire.”
This was written in November 2023 in reply to the question: Considering likely changes due to the proliferation of AI in individuals’ lives and in social, economic and political systems, how will life have changed by 2040? This and more than 150 additional responses are included in the report “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence by 2040”