Peter Thiel Hesitates When Asked if the Human Race Should Survive

Peter Thiel hesitated when asked if he thinks the human race should survive.

The question came up during the Interesting Times with Ross Douthat podcast, when the pair discussed AI. Douthat asks Thiel if he fears AI will eventually stagnate, becoming “highly intelligent, but creative in a conformist way.”

“I think we should be trying AI and that the alternative is total stagnation,” Thiel responds. “If you don’t have AI. Wow, there’s just nothing going on.”

Thiel then compared the evolution of AI to the internet. “I would argue that it’s still better than the alternative, that if we hadn’t had the internet, maybe it would have been worse," he explained. "AI’s better than the alternative, and the alternative is nothing at all.”

The former PayPal CEO continued, “The fact that we’re only talking about AI, I feel is always an implicit acknowledgement that but for AI, we are like in almost total stagnation.”

Thiel’s comments prompted Douthat to discuss AI's enthusiastic adopters who see the technology as a “mechanism for transhumanism, for transcendence of our mortal flesh,” who view AI as a stepping stone to a “successor species or some kind of merger of mind and machine.”

“You would prefer the human race to endure,” right? Douthat asked. Thiel paused and didn’t answer right away. “You’re hesitating,” Douthat said. As Thiel tried to gather his thoughts, Douthat said, “This is a long hesitation.”

“Should the human race survive?” the host asked again. “Yes,” Thiel responded.

Thiel was a co-founder and the former CEO of PayPal until it was sold to eBay in 2002. He was also the first outside investor in Facebook. According to Forbes, the 57-year-old is the 103rd richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $20.8 billion.