We’re currently living in a world where AI dominates the headlines, whether that relates to the role of data centers in wartime or an ongoing scandal over the use of AI in a horror novel from a major publishing house. So it wasn’t surprising that this week brought a returning guest to the Real Time With Bill Maher stage: Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology.
Harris brought up his appearance in a new film titled The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist. He spoke about the importance of finding a place where the optimists and pessimists can converge, which he described as “a shared common moment.”
Harris was blunt about what could go wrong with unregulated AI. He pointed to the possibility of a future where there were “five companies that hold on to all of the wealth in the economy,” with grim implications for employment and the economy. “What happens when all of the GDP in the U.S. comes from AI and not from human labor?” he asked. Later, he was even more chilling: “This is heading towards an anti-human future.”
Harris and Maher discussed the results of a recent study that found that AI was more likely to cause nuclear war than humans. And they asked the audience if anyone was comfortable with where the technology was going? No one was.
The points that Harris was advocating for seemed pretty common-sensical: common knowledge of the technology, international limits on certain types of AI and a lot more regulation.Harris also brought up the idea of the “Intelligence Curse,” a concept that predicted governments investing more and more money in technology rather than in people, with bleak consequences.
It was an alarming conversation, and the evening’s panel — comprised of Democratic strategist Paul Begala and Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna — had other worrying subjects to address, most notably the war in Iran and whether or not thee is a fissure emerging within the MAGA movement.
Things took a somewhat awkward turn in the second half, when Maher brought up Cuba and suggested to Luna that the subject would be of interest, due to it being where her family hails from. Except for the fact that, well, they’re not. “We’re Mexican. Not all the same, Bill,” she said. (He apologized.)
The mix of speakers led to occasional points within the conversation where all three speakers were at odds with one another, which made for interesting viewing. Luna also worked to direct the conversation to one of her pet issues: regulating members of Congress’s ability to trade stocks.
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The industry saw a 101% increase in AI job postings during the past yearMaher closed out the night with a hot take about hot takes — namely, that they’re both bad and unnecessary. His description of people on social media offering said takes as “a one-person episode of The View that never ends” was evocative, but it also served as a reminder that, as he phrased it, “most people aren’t hopelessly trapped in a news cycle.”
This led to him using the phrase “Terminally Online Disease.” (As someone who recently wrote a book review that included the lines, “It’s the internet. Get thicker skin,” I am sympathetic to this argument.) Maher closed out the evening with a rare invocation of the divine: “If God wanted us to have an opinion on everything, he wouldn’t have given us the shrug emoji.”
Other notable moments from this episode:
- Maher on the forthcoming Donald Trump coin: “Now you can have Trump in your pocket! Like Saudi Arabia.”
- Did Maher make light of FBI Director Kash Patel’s custom sneakers? Oh yes.
- Maher on X: “Sure, it has 500 million posts every day, but half of them come from the owner.”
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