Every technology, just before becoming the norm, creates a wave of hype that often overestimates its potential. But when that hype fades, the technology still becomes a part of our lives to some extent, though not to the level it was once imagined.
When the Internet was invented, the world became overly excited. People started telling stories about its potential, some so exaggerated that they predicted the end of humanity. Some even called it a kind of “magic” or a “deception of the West” meant to control the world. But with time, people adjusted to its existence, and now it’s normal to live with the Internet.
Similarly, when the digital revolution struck, new doomsday stories began circulating. Ironically, in most cases, it’s the academics and scientists who raise such concerns… concerns that blow the minds of ordinary people who believe that scientists never lie.
And now, with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the story of human extinction has been revived again.
Unlike the previous waves of technological change, today’s mode of communication is fully democratized. Social media has given a voice to everyone on the planet, and the race for views has only escalated the panic.
I recently came across several media reports raising concerns about exponential joblessness due to AI. Some scientists added more fuel to the fire by asking, “What if AI becomes more intelligent than humans?” According to them, we will be doomed…AI will rule over us.
Yes, if you judge by asking everything from a chatbot like ChatGPT, this fear might seem valid. But let’s pause for a moment.
AI is indeed a revolution, but the hype on the Internet doesn’t fully reflect reality.
Let’s understand AI in simple terms so that even a layperson can grasp it.
What are you doing right now with your smartphone? Scrolling? Talking? Chatting? Reading? Or just exploring its features? Whatever you’re doing, your phone is recording your every activity.
This record is called input data. Every movement reflects some kind of data. Even if you put your phone on charging, that too is data. Surprised? Just check YouTube Studio or ask any YouTuber. YouTube tells you when your audience is active, the best time to publish content, and where your viewers are located.
How does YouTube know this? Because we provide data daily. This data is the fuel for today’s technological revolution.
Data analysis has long been common in industries. What YouTube shows is an analysis. But companies like OpenAI thought beyond this. They worked on a technology where our generated data could talk back to us like a human.
How is that possible? Let me explain with a simple example.
In school, a teacher asks 50 students from different backgrounds to write an essay about “The Sun.” What do you think the response will be? Since the sun is the same for everyone… hot, yellow, and shining the essays should all be the same, right?
No, they won’t be. Every student has a different experience with the sun. Some might hate it and call it an angry red creature that burns their skin. Others might love it for bringing warmth, light, and blooming flowers. Each perception is shaped by personal, environmental, and psychological experiences.
When the teacher collects the essays, she has 50 different perspectives about the sun. If she writes her own essay afterward, she now has 50 perspectives in her mind, making her essay far more insightful.
This is how AI works. Millions of people share their perspectives every second through their devices. Machines detect, organize, and process this information to become super-intelligent responsive systems what we now call AI.
It’s like taming a dog. You train it to follow certain habits. Similarly, we’ve trained machines with our data. The difference is that a dog learns from one owner, while a machine learns from millions of people every second, making it appear super-intelligent.
Machines don’t just become intelligent overnight. They pass through different stages of learning, just like students in schools and universities. This learning process is called Machine Learning (ML).
Just as students use notebooks to write down lessons, machines use Large Language Models (LLMs) to record and process human data. With each update, the LLM improves, bringing a more refined version of AI to the market.
That’s why our first exposure was ChatGPT-1, and today we are interacting with ChatGPT-5 … faster, smarter, and more accurate.
Now you have understood the basic concept of AI, let’s return to the big question:
Will AI lead us to doomsday?
Are we officially entering an extinction phase?
Has the era of robotic slavery begun?
These questions are floating all over social media… designed mostly to spread fear and gain views.
Yes, AI can affect jobs. It might replace thousands of roles. But it will not end humanity. Despite its intelligence, AI has a major physical weakness: the On/Off switch
No matter what… whether it’s a robot, a computer, or a chatbot, if it bothers you, you can just turn it off, and it’s gone. Humans don’t have such a switch. Death is their only ultimate end, whether natural or forced.
Because humans are aware of their mortality, they stay in survival mode. They build, fight, adapt, and keep moving forward. Humanity has survived wars, famines, disasters, and tyrants. Do you really think they can easily be defeated by a few machines?
Even if one day comes when AI poses a real threat, someone will simply switch it off. There may be power struggles over the switch, but ultimately, survival instinct will prevail. A machine can be turned on, but a human can’t be brought back to life, once gone. That’s why humans will always fight to avoid the threat of death.
But honestly, that day is unlikely to come. AI is just a tool that gained extraordinary hype because of the era in which it was introduced, “the Era of Views.”
In this era, even a random meteorite is sensationalized as an Armageddon event for clicks and views. Similarly, AI has been overhyped. But once governments regulate and integrate it into systems, AI becomes a functional part of life, not a threat.
Today, AI is already integrated into our daily lives. We take guidance from it, automate processes, drive self-driving cars, and more. These advancements are meant to serve humanity.
Like a beach, if water stays at your feet, it’s calming. But when it rises above your head, it becomes dangerous. AI is a blessing when it’s under our control. The real danger begins when only a few elites control the switchboard and move it above our head.
And that’s what we’re witnessing today, powerful countries and corporations consolidating AI control within their boundaries.
So, the danger isn’t AI itself. It’s the human elite who want to dominate the world through exclusive control.
Therefore, don’t fear AI.
Fear the people who control it.
Keep your eyes on the switchboard holders…they are the real threat.
