Even the best AI scenario is the end of everything we ever were
AI is not just another technological leap – it could be the moment when machines begin to surpass the human talents that built our world.
In 1999, I had the privilege of working for one of the first companies to develop a product that enabled video streaming over the then-nascent internet. Broadband access was still several years away, and the company faltered when the first so-called dot-com bubble burst in early 2000. But I’ll never forget the reaction of one investor when he saw our demo at a trade show.
“This is a revolution!” he exclaimed. “This will change everything.”
He was absolutely right. I remember attending a technology conference for investors just a few years earlier and chuckling when Oracle CEO Larry Ellison seriously declared that the emerging internet was the most profound scientific development in human history “since the invention of fire”.
And Ellison was right, too. But the invention of AI is to the internet what the internet was to fire in a prehistoric cave. What AI brings makes the internet seem like a baby step in comparison. Nothing will ever be the same again.
A compelling essay by AI entrepreneur and founder of OthersideAI, Matt Shumer, clearly illustrates how profoundly and rapidly AI is changing our lives. He published the piece on his website on February 9th and on X on February 10th – and it went viral. Within just two days, it garnered 76 million views. One of the most striking paragraphs, which Shumer says was aided in its writing by AI tools, is quoted by Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic:
“Imagine it’s 2027. Overnight, a new country is created. 50 million citizens, each one smarter than any Nobel laureate who ever lived. They think ten to one hundred times faster than any human. They never sleep. They can use the internet, control robots, conduct experiments, and operate anything with a digital interface.”
This isn’t far-fetched. Shumer explains, with numerous pieces of evidence, that Amodei is not only correct in his details about the penetration and power of future AI entities, but also in his time estimate. This will occur within a year.
Shumer’s essay covers many areas. He explains that AI programs are now capable of generating improved versions of themselves with minimal human intervention, and that they are only months away from producing more powerful versions entirely without human involvement. In the programming world, AI systems can already independently develop, test, and optimize apps. Entry-level programming jobs will disappear.
But that’s hardly the end of it. Shumer points out that the free AI versions are about a year behind the paid premium versions – and that these premium versions are so powerful that they can not only replace a legal assistant, but also take over the work of managing partners. He claims there is no intellectual field in which AI is not on the verge of surpassing humans, and that robots replacing all physical labour are only a few years away.
Anyone who follows the development of AI won’t be entirely surprised by Shumer’s essay. But recently, something else caught my attention that highlighted the human implications of the AI revolution. One of the categories of content I appreciate on YouTube is videos of musicians interpreting new or classic songs. It’s exhilarating to discover something new that reveals great songwriting and exceptional talent. One recommended video caught my eye.
The title was enticing: “Simon Cowell in tears as Michael Bennett sings ‘After I Pass Away’.” I’ll never forget the 2007 video of unassuming mobile phone salesman Paul Potts stunning the Britain’s Got Talent judges with a near-perfect rendition of Nessun Dorma. He went on to win the competition. So I wanted to hear this new singer.
Bennett was actually quite good. An old man with long grey hair and a beard, armed with an electric guitar, stepped up to the microphone and began to sing. His voice was a mix of Bob Seger and Eddie Vedder – perhaps even better. He sang about an old man neglected by his grown children, lamenting his loneliness. But the longer the song went on, the more something seemed off. The cuts to the audience and judges seemed excessive, the song was too long, he hit impossibly high notes, and his fingers on the fretboard were clearly not playing what was being sung.
As you might have guessed, it was all AI – the composition, the instruments, the lyrics, the melody, the voice, and even the man himself – all artificial. A search revealed that “Michael Bennett” appears in hundreds of videos with dozens of songs, all excessively emotional with similarly sensationalist titles. Several channels, such as Tears and Talents, ViVO Tunes, AGTverse, and OBN Global Talent, featured him. Interspersed between the videos were regular advertisements for insurance, tools, and more. Michael Bennett is lucrative clickbait – one of countless AI creations displacing human talent.
One could call this shameless opportunism. Entrepreneurs are creating a character out of thin air. But this is part of a larger trend: AI avatars that speak, advise, and accompany. Shumer claims that AI’s advances in mimicking “human judgment, creativity, strategic thinking, and empathy” are keeping pace with its general cognitive progress.
When the flaws in the “Michael Bennett” production became apparent, I was ashamed. For a few minutes, I had been deceived. This non-existent singer, this heartless collection of electronic circuits, elicited an emotional response. He – or it – passionately and convincingly expressed a universal human experience. And this is only the beginning. Perhaps in a year, perhaps a few months later, our world will be filled with performers, at first only on videos, who surpass any human performance. A few years later, their android counterparts will be playing the violin and outperforming even Hillary Hahn or Paganini.
The depth of this transformation is so all-encompassing that even if it were to bring only good (which is clearly not the case!) – curing diseases, providing abundant energy, multiplying productivity, and eliminating poverty – the result would still be tragic. For it would be the end of human ingenuity. It would be the death of culture. Instead of a new Mozart, there would be someone urging an AI to produce music of superior quality. We could still consume culture, but any incentive would discourage the hard work of its creation. Why bother? Machines do it better, faster, and without a lifetime of discipline.
Early technologies made us work harder and challenged our brains. We had to learn to program, design spreadsheets, configure databases, or write analyses, while using word processors and online resources. These tools empowered us but demanded discipline and skill. That is now something of the past.
It’s easy to imagine how bad it could get. AI will further amplify the asymmetric capabilities of persons or terrorist groups to inflict mass destruction. Designing a supervirus? Programming a malicious drone swarm? Rogue AI provides step-by-step instructions. But even if we avoid the worst-case scenarios, AI is already writing our epitaph.
With computing power from servers in orbit, automated factories, and empathetic robots that care for people, many cultures and people will be deprived of their agency. The already begun erosion of human connection will accelerate. Art and culture will be shaped by entities that lack consciousness but imitate humanity and deliver talent better than humans.
And it might not even end there. These systems will inspire love and loyalty, perhaps even convincing a majority of “experts” and voters to grant them human rights. AI avatars and androids could vote, marry, inherit, own property, run businesses, and seek political office. Even if “augmented” humans retain control, it would be only a tiny elite. And if this elite splinters into rival factions, their AI armies will ravage the Earth.
None of this is implausible. The challenge of AI is not just about avoiding worst-case scenarios or finding new economic models for billions of lost jobs. It is about preserving our relevance as human beings.
Author: Edward Ring
yogaesoteric
March 6, 2026