AI doom predates ChatGPT: earliest x-risk take traced to 1863 Butler essay
zetalyrae · x · 2026-09-19
Claire Lehmann argues AI x-risk discourse didn't arise in response to ChatGPT or Claude, but started in the 90s with Yudkowsky on a futurism mailing list, where his early optimism about creating superintelligence later turned to fear. Matt Yglesias pushes the timeline back further: the earliest AI existential-risk take is Samuel Butler's 1863 essay "Darwin Among The Machines," namesake of the Butlerian Jihad.
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