January 30, 2026
Skynet or just Tuesday?
The Importance of Diversity
Diversity or Doomsday? Internet Roasts ‘Billions Will Die’ AI Rant
TLDR: George “geohot” Hotz blasted centralized AI and praised messy, decentralized diversity, even predicting catastrophic conflict. Commenters clapped back, joking it’s Terminator fanfic and arguing unregulated tech caused enough damage—reviving the core fight over who should control AI and why it matters for everyone’s future.
Tech legend George “geohot” Hotz lit the internet on fire with a fiery post arguing that centralized AI—think one giant brain in one building—means tyranny, and that real safety is messy, distributed, and diverse. He dunks on top-down “adults in the room” thinking, citing Dario Amodei’s essay and Effective Altruism (a movement focused on doing good efficiently), and goes hard for open-source over universal basic income (UBI). Then he drops the jaw-dropper: wars are coming and “billions will die,” but diversity must survive. The comment section? A full-on meme riot.
The sharpest backlash calls it “doomsday cult” energy and blames a “largely unregulated tech industry” for our current mess. One top quip: the guy who jailbroke iPhones is now “inside the plot of Terminator 2.” Ouch. Others say the post glamorizes chaos while hand-waving real-world harm, pointing to his nod at a piece about destroying rogue data centers—too close to real-life disaster fantasies for comfort. Supporters, though quieter, cheer the anti-monopoly stance and the plea to decentralize power, arguing that a million small AIs beat one overlord.
In short, it’s ideology cage match: anti-centralization rebel vs safety-first hall monitors. The memes are savage, the skepticism loud, and the big question hangs over it all: who should hold the keys to our future—everyone, or a few “grown-ups” in a lab?
Key Points
- •The author critiques top‑down AI governance narratives, using Dario Amodei’s essay as a starting point.
- •The essay contrasts centralized control (“a country of geniuses in a datacenter”) with distributed development (“geniuses to a million mothers worldwide”), favoring decentralization.
- •It argues diversity of actors and motivations is beneficial despite associated messiness and risks.
- •The author contends the worst cosmic-scale outcome occurs when a single entity (or homogenous bloc) holds overwhelming power over AI.
- •The piece advocates open-source approaches and decentralizing technology while rejecting universal basic income as a solution to inequality.