2 Critical Reasons to Worry About AI as a Prepper

I know that AI gets a bad rap at times, and maybe for good reason, but from what I can tell it’s only a fancy search engine. It doesn’t actually “think” like we’re all worried about. At least, not yet. I’ve played around with it on occasion and I’m both mystified and dumbfounded by the answers it gives me. Sometimes it (whatever AI I’m using) gives me wonderful answers to problems I encounter, like coding stuff that I don’t want to take the time to learn or summarizing several articles, but at other times it gives me answers that make me wonder if it’s even paying any attention to what I’ve asked.

Ultimately, I’m of two minds about AI.

On the one hand, I can see how AI could prove extremely useful to humanity. Aside from helping people with all sorts of mundane (and even highly complex) tasks, I can see AI becoming the “brains” behind everything we do. As it begins to “think” more and more for us, humanity can be freed up to do amazing things … things we haven’t even considered. An analogy might be how the development of the internet has furthered society in so many ways unseen at the time. Of course, this is all in how you look at any major technological progression – you can see the good or bad in anything.

On the other hand, I can envision a truly dark future ahead. The prepper in me (or maybe it’s the cynical part) truly fears a world where AI has taken over. Aside from envisioning ways that AI might decide to eliminate the human race because [fill in the blank reason], I’m concerned that it will usher in a phase of humanity that either lulls us into the Matrix (where everyone is essentially asleep to reality) or humans are all forced to compete by hacking our genes and becoming something no longer human (see Elon Musk’s brain chips).

I don’t know how this plays out. Maybe the adoption of AI will simply create a subclass of “useless eaters” as some of our elites like to call us, lol. What I can say is that there will be major upheaval as AI becomes a way of life. Thus, as preppers, we need to stay ahead of the rest of society because they refuse to open their eyes to the what’s coming.

What I didn’t fully appreciate was just how draining AI already is on our infrastructure, specifically the power grid and water resources. Watch the following video for details:

I don’t want to rehash what’s been said, but if there was ever a wake up call for those who consider themselves preppers, this is a big one. If you’re of the mind, like me, that these systems (power and water) are already at a breaking point, the continued expansion of AI will only exacerbate these problems. Add in all the other strife in the world, cyberattacks, and everything that could go wrong (like an ice storm sagging power lines or simply user error), then it’s clear that you should be doing everything you can to provide these crucial aspects of survival for yourself.

At minimum, consider what you’ll do when they’re interrupted. Maybe your power and water aren’t gone for good, but only unreliable. How do you sustain yourself in this case? If you don’t have answers to this yet, it’s time to get them. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on off-grid power or drilling water wells. These are great options if you can afford them, but something is better than nothing. Consider stocking up on gas cans, an inverter, a DIY solar setup, water barrels, and filters.

I’ve written about this stuff ad nauseum over the years on my blog, in survival books, and my survival course, so I won’t rehash that stuff here. But I will remind you that these problems won’t magically get better and they rarely offer opportunity to be “fixed” after the fact. Preppers prepare for a reason. Go prepare.