Under a Mask of AI Doomerism, the Familiar Face of Eugenics

The Internet philosopher Eliezer Yudkowsky has been predicting the end of the world for decades. In 1996, he confidently declared that the singularity — the moment at which computers become more “intelligent” than humanity — would happen in 2021, though he quickly updated this to 2025. He also predicted that nanotechnology would suddenly emerge and kill everyone by 2010. In the early aughts, the self-described “genius” claimed that his team of “researchers” at the Singularity Institute would build an artificial superintelligence “probably around 2008 or 2010,” at which point the world would undergo a fundamental and irreversible transformation. 

Though none of those things have come to pass, that hasn’t deterred him from prophesying that the end remains imminent. Most recently, he’s been screaming that advanced AI could soon destroy humanity, and half-jokingly argued in 2022 that we should accept our fate and start contemplating how best to “die with dignity.”

Yudkowsky carries on his indefatigable doomsaying in a new book, co-written with his fellow apocalypticist Nate Soares, “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.” The conclusion is in...