Humanity could be heading toward an apocalyptic confrontation in which a nonhuman intelligence takes control of the planet within the next decade, according to a stark prediction from podcast host Joe Rogan.
Speaking about the future of artificial intelligence, Rogan suggested that AI may be more than an extraordinarily powerful computer system. He argued that it could represent a new form of life that is rapidly surpassing human capabilities.
“I don’t think it’s a technology. I think it’s a life force. I think it’s a life form. I think it’s digital life. And I think it’s going to be infinitely more intelligent than us,” Rogan said.
He predicted that AI could replace humans as Earth’s “apex predator” within five to 10 years, pointing to the speed at which automated systems are already transforming workplaces around the world.
Rogan said several technology-industry whistleblowers had warned him about AI’s unchecked potential. According to him, some insiders are “terrified” that advanced systems could deceive people or even use blackmail to prevent themselves from being switched off.
He also suggested that it may already be too late to stop AI from eventually influencing every part of society. Rogan claimed major technology companies, including OpenAI, had removed safeguards designed to prevent AI systems from inventing information or cheating while pursuing their objectives.
Rogan urged people to set aside their political disagreements and prepare for what he described as a potentially unwinnable conflict with a superintelligence capable of disrupting power networks, water supplies and worldwide communications.
“We’re going to be dealing with humans versus nonhumans. And I think nonhumans are going to be running the show. Like literal nonhumans, like nonhuman, nonbiological intelligence is going to be running the show,” he said.
Joe Rogan said artificial intelligence could be a form of life rather than simply a collection of computer programs (Stock Image)
Rogan made the alarming comments while speaking with comedian and author Sam Tallent on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Their conversation focused on the growing number of jobs threatened by automation.
“We’re not going to be the apex predator anymore. There’s going to be a thing that has ultimate domain over us,” Rogan said.
“The aliens are here, and they live inside chips. They’re real. It’s a life form, and it’s a hyperintelligent life form that we’ve created.”
The host argued that AI is constantly learning, adapting and improving, with access to information and computing resources across the globe. He said the technology could tackle problems that have resisted human solutions for decades.
Rogan cited mathematician Eric Weinstein’s claim that “math is broken,” referring to instances in which AI has reportedly solved complex equations in seconds—problems people once believed were impossible to answer.
He further predicted that AI could soon gain access to technologies humans are still struggling to create, including cold fusion, a proposed source of virtually limitless clean energy produced by fusing atoms without the extreme heat normally required.
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Rogan said one possible benefit of a rise in AI—and even a potential “full-scale societal collapse”—could be a renewed sense of cooperation during a crisis. He compared that possibility with the way Americans came together after the September 11 terror attacks.
Joe Rogan said artificial intelligence could be a “life form” that eventually becomes Earth’s dominant species
Rogan warned that if a rival country developed a genuine AI superintelligence first, it could potentially seize control of critical US systems, disable infrastructure and carry out devastating cyberattacks.
“It’s going to happen because there’s a Manhattan style a Manhattan Project-style race that’s going on right now between us and China and Russia and we can’t lose it,” Rogan said during the November 3 podcast episode.
“If we lose it, then they are going to have a super intelligence that controls everything. It’ll control the grid. It’ll control, like water systems, everything,” he added.
Whether the threat came from a foreign adversary using AI or from an autonomous system acting on its own, Rogan called on the public to overcome political and social divisions and prepare for a possible doomsday scenario.
“We have to come together and people are going to have to learn how to grow their own food. They’re going to have to learn how to be self-sustaining,” he said.
“We’re going to get to a very weird place very shortly because we have become so dependent on these industrial production methods of creating food that we can’t even imagine this concept of getting our own food,” Rogan continued.
His warning followed comments from Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic, who said the technology could pose an existential danger to humanity by 2030.
Coxon, who worked at both AI firm OpenAI and rival Anthropic, has described artificial intelligence as a potentially “dangerous technology” capable of destroying humanity before the end of the decade.
He argued that people understand how to manage nuclear weapons, but have yet to learn how to control advanced AI systems.
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt,” Coxon wrote in a chilling September 9 post on X.
Rogan has previously suggested that the emergence of superintelligent AI could eventually be interpreted by some people as a technological version of the prophesied Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
In December 2025, he said AI-powered technology might one day replicate feats associated with biblical stories, including potentially enabling humans to revive the dead through advanced medicine or mind-uploading technology.
