This Week in Startups · Monday, September 14, 2026
Jason Calacanis argues that fears of AI causing humanity's extinction are largely overblown, attributing them to a desire for attention or a form of psychosis. He believes that current AI is not capable of world domination and that safeguards can and are being implemented by developers.
“The reason why people are being hyperbolic is because they want attention and they want attention because either this is my theory, this individual who, you know, is the latest one to spout off. Either they have valid concerns, uh, about say job loss like Bill Gates does. Or civil unrest or polarization of wealth. Those kinds of things are not cataclysmic for everybody's going to die. Those are under the category of like the social fabric is destroyed in our country, in our world, societal problems. There could be societal problems.”
“These people have hit a level of psychosis. A level of psychosis where they believe in their heart of hearts that when this recursive self-improvement, in other words, the AI agents that they deploy, 10,000 of them. Will then get better and better at their job without a human in the loop. This requires them to take the human out of the loop.”
“Here's a great idea, folks. If you're using AI right now, and this is why the public is not falling for this anymore. I think the public is literally, about six weeks behind the rest of us in the industry who are saying these people are drama queens. Or they're suffering from psychosis. Or maybe a little bit of both. Maybe they want to be important and they have a little bit of psychosis.”
“So, literally, not only should AI not allow you to do these things, it should in fact be safer than non-AI products. AI products, if designed correctly, should be safer than non-AI products and can be.”