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Peter Thiel: The One Technology That Scares Me

By Peter Thiel · Strategy · 1 min read

If you could build a generalized AI smarter than humans, that would be the equivalent of aliens landing on this planet. The first question wouldn't be economic — it would be political. Are they friendly or not?

Key Points

The one technology he's marginally nervous about: generalized AI smarter than humans
People focus too much on the economic question — will computers replace jobs?
The real question is political: are they friendly? Like aliens landing on earth.

If you were able to build a generalized AI smarter than humans, that would be the equivalent of aliens landing on this planet.

Marginally Nervous About One Thing

Thiel: I'm super strongly in favor of technology. Probably the one technology I'm at least marginally nervous about is if you could build generalized AI. I tend to think it's still pretty far away — too futuristic at this point to actually develop.

I'm strongly in favor of technology. The one thing I'm marginally nervous about: generalized AI.

Not the Economic Question — the Political One

Thiel: When people talk about AI, they focus too much on the economic question. Will computers replace people? Will you lose your job? But if you were actually able to build a generalized AI smarter than humans — this would be the equivalent of aliens landing on this planet. A really epochal event.

The first question if aliens landed would not be the economic question. It would be the political question. Are they friendly? Are they not friendly?

If aliens landed, the first question wouldn't be economic. It would be: are they friendly?

Something Scary About It

Thiel: If you could build AI that was smarter than humans in every dimension — my intuition is there would be something kind of scary about it. It's probably the one area I would be nervous about funding.

AI smarter than humans in every dimension — my intuition is there would be something scary about it.