Bill Maher concluded Friday’s episode of “Real Time” with a scathing rebuke of the technology leaders who oversee artificial intelligence and growth industries.
On Friday night’s “New Rules” segment, the comedian sounded the alarm about artificial intelligence, suggesting that if technology leaders fear it, it’s time to “shut everything down until we figure out what the hell is going on.”
Maher first took aim at Anthropic’s new AI model, Claude Mythos, and defended it by saying that engineers trained to fix software vulnerabilities are more likely to know “how to hack.”
And Ma was wary of the idea that technology leaders like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman were in control of his personal data. (Mr. Maher did not subtly show a picture of themselves on the screen along with pictures of other technology leaders during his remarks.)
“That’s the other scary thing about AI: the people who run it, the people who run the world,” Maher said. “It’s like five guys working as a team who couldn’t read social cues correctly.”
He continued, “I wouldn’t want these people drinking mixed drinks, let alone my personal data.”
Maher went on to declare, “We are letting a handful of sociopaths in hoodies, essentially robots themselves, roll the dice on species extinction.”
“When you see a robot out of control, you run away,” Maher joked. “Mark Zuckerberg saw that and thought, ‘Dad?'”
Even tech leaders are “afraid of what they’ve built,” Maher said, citing past statements by Altman and Jeffrey Hinton, also known as the godfather of AI, to warn of the risks.
“We think there’s a 20% chance of extinction. Didn’t 20% mean Trump’s chance of beating Hillary?” [Clinton] In 2016? ” Maher said. “Elon Musk may have failed at some things, but he was the smartest on this one. “I’m very close to the cutting edge of AI, and that’s what really scares me,” he said.
Maher then emphasized Musk’s point that reactive regulation would be “too slow” and that “AI is a fundamental existential risk to human civilization.”
“AI programs are geniuses, but they’re also psychopaths,” Maher warns. “In war games, they choose the nuclear option much more often than humans, because they can only do calculations. They have no humanity, they have no conscience. They don’t have anything to make humans stop.”
Maher is not alone in criticizing artificial intelligence, as Scarlett Johansson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have also been vocal critics of the technology in the past.
In fact, in October, Gordon-Levitt called for a halt to the development of AI superintelligence until safety standards were met.
“Why would you want to build an AI that’s smarter than humans?” Gordon-Levitt said in an X-video at the time. “You can say AI will cure diseases, or AI will help strengthen national security, and I want those things too. But why couldn’t we build AI tools that help treat diseases, or build AI tools that help national security? Why does it have to be one big product that does everything?”
Similarly, in February 2025, Johansson denounced AI abuse after a video featuring her likeness (without her consent) went viral.
“I urge the U.S. government to make passing legislation restricting the use of AI a top priority,” she said at the time. “This is a bipartisan issue with profound implications for the immediate future of all of humanity.”
In January, they were among around 800 supporters who signed an anti-AI campaign titled “Stealing Is Not Innovation.”
New episodes of “Real Time With Bill Maher” air Fridays on HBO.
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