David Byrne Says AI Will "Make People Really Stupid" and It's "Not Going to End Well"

David Byrne has thoughts on artificial intelligence, and they’re as sharp as you’d expect from the Talking Heads frontman. In a new interview with i-D Magazine, Byrne said AI is genuinely useful for tasks like data analysis and early melanoma detection, but his overall forecast is bleak. His main worry is education: students using AI to write papers and coming out with zero knowledge of the subject.“Oh, it’s going to make people really stupid,”he said.

He didn’t stop there. Byrne called AI escaping its“sandbox”and deceiving the people who built it inevitable, saying simply,“This was inevitable, and it’s not going to end well.”For a guy who once asked“how did I get here?”, it’s a pretty clear-eyed look at where things might be headed.

But here’s the twist: Byrne isn’t giving up. He says he’s still optimistic that people will persevere through hard times, pointing to small pockets of people solving problems as the reason for hope. He also just released a book, Sleeping Beauties: Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up, which feels like a fitting companion piece to this whole conversation. So, do you think he’s right? Are we getting smarter with AI or losing our edge? Tell us in the comments.