Jon Stewart's 15-minute teardown of AI is both hilarious and disturbing

"AI is going to be ready to take over by Thursday."
 By 
Sam Haysom
 on 
A man sits at a talk show desk while an image in the top-left reads "The promise of AI".
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Jon Stewart has turned his attentions away from politics this week on The Daily Show and onto the looming existential threat of artificial intelligence.

In the clip above the host describes it as a "bait and switch", mocking the tech leaders acting like they're helping us while simultaneously putting multiple jobs at risk.

"That's the game," concludes Stewart, after sharing past footage of various presidents talking about workers retraining. "Whether it's globalisation or industrialisation or, now, artificial intelligence, the way of life that you are accustomed to is no match for the promise of more profits and new markets. Which sounds brutal, if you're a human, but at least those other disruptions took place over a century, or decades — AI's going to be ready to take over by Thursday.

"And once that happens, what the fuck is there left for the rest of us to do?"

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Sam Haysom

Sam Haysom is the Deputy UK Editor for Mashable. He covers entertainment and online culture, and writes horror fiction in his spare time.


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