{"id":591148,"date":"2026-04-18T05:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/591148\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:30:09","slug":"bill-maher-takes-aim-at-tech-leaders-in-scathing-rebuke-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/591148\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Maher Takes Aim at Tech Leaders in Scathing Rebuke of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Maher laid into artificial intelligence and the tech leaders overseeing the growing industry in a scathing rebuke that closed out Friday\u2019s episode of \u201cReal Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his \u201cNew Rules\u201d segment for Friday evening, the comedian sounded the alarm on artificial intelligence, suggesting if the people leading the technology are scared of it then it was time to \u201cshut the whole thing down until we can figure out what the hell is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maher started off by taking aim at Anthropic\u2019s new AI model Claude Mythos, defending that the tech trained to fix software vulnerabilities likely knows \u201chow to do the hacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Maher felt wary at the idea of tech leaders like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, having a hold on his personal data. (Maher not so subtly put their pictures, along with other tech leaders\u2019 pictures on the screen during his remarks.)<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s the other scary thing about AI, the people who run it \u2014 i.e. the people who run the world,\u201d Maher noted. \u201cAnd it\u2019s like five guys, who, between them, working as a team, couldn\u2019t correctly read a social cue.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t let these guys around a mixed drink, let alone my personal data.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Maher went on, he declared that \u201cwe\u2019re letting a handful of hoodie wearing, on the spectrum sociopaths, practically robots themselves, roll the dice on species extinction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see an out of control robot and you run,\u201d Maher joked. \u201cMark Zuckerberg sees one and thinks, \u2018Dad?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Per Maher, even the tech leaders \u201care afraid of what they\u2019ve created,\u201d citing Altman and Geoffrey Hinton (a.k.a. the Godfather of AI)\u2019s past statements warning of the risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re f\u2013king around with a 20% chance of extinction. 20% \u2014 wasn\u2019t that about the odds for Trump beating Hillary [Clinton] in 2016?\u201d Maher stated. \u201cElon Musk may\u2019ve lost it on a few things, but on this subject he\u2019s been the smartest. \u2018I am very close to the cutting edge in AI,\u2019 he said, \u2018and it scares the hell out of me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Maher then highlighted Musk\u2019s note that reactive regulation will be \u201ctoo late\u201d and that \u201cAI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAI programs are geniuses, but they\u2019re also psychopaths,\u201d Maher warned. \u201cIn war games, they choose the nuclear option far more than humans do. Because they can only calculate. They have no humanity, the have no conscience. They don\u2019t have that thing that gives human beings pause.\u201d <\/p>\n

Maher isn\u2019t alone in his criticism of artificial intelligence, as both Scarlett Johansson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have been vocal critics of the technology in the past.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In fact, back in October, Gordon-Levitt called for AI super-intelligence development\u00a0to stop until safety standards could be met.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you want to build an AI that\u2019s smarter than humans?\u201d\u00a0Gordon-Levitt remarked in an X video<\/a>\u00a0at the time. \u201cYou could say AI is going to cure diseases or AI is going to help strengthen our national security, and, yeah, I want those things, too. But why couldn\u2019t we just build an AI tool to help cure diseases or build an AI tool to help with national security? Why does it have to all be one big product that does everything?\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, in February 2025, Johansson called out the misuse of AI after a video featuring her likeness (without her consent) went viral.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge the U.S. government to make the passing of legislation limiting AI use a top priority,\u201d\u00a0she said at the time<\/a>. \u201cIt is a bipartisan issue that enormously affects the immediate future of humanity at large.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, they were among nearly 800 supporters who lent their signatures to an anti-AI campaign, titled \u201cStealing Isn\u2019t Innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

New episodes of \u201cReal Time With Bill Maher\u201d air Fridays on HBO.<\/p>\n

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