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By Megan Cartwright
Associate News Editor
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Podcaster Joe Rogan startled guest Sam Tallent on The Joe Rogan Experience by predicting that digital intelligence could eventually have "ultimate domain" over humanity.
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have fueled debate over how powerful the technology could become and what greater autonomy might mean for humans.
Rogan said that people should stop being "at each other’s throats" as society prepares for potentially transformative advances in non-human intelligence.
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Newsweek reached out to Rogan and Tallent's representatives via email for comment on Wednesday and is awaiting responses.
Why It Matters
Rogan’s comments carry an unusually large megaphone because The Joe Rogan Experience attracts millions of listeners, making it one of the most-forceful media platforms in the U.S. He has 21.2 million subscribers on YouTube, 19.4 million on Instagram and 15.6 million on X. His warning also taps into a much-wider public debate over where increasingly sophisticated AI could ultimately lead.
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What To Know
Rogan Predicts Humans Could Lose Control
Rogan offered his stark outlook while discussing the future with Tallent, a comedian and author, predicting a fundamental change in the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence.
"I think what we're going to be dealing with in the next five or 10 years is we're going to be dealing with humans versus nonhumans," Rogan said on Tuesday's episode.
He predicted that "non-human, non-biological intelligence" could eventually be "running the show," before stating that the possibility should encourage people to recognize a common challenge rather than remain divided.
"I think it's imperative that we not be at each other's throats and recognize that this is coming," Rogan said.
Tallent responded: "Oh yeah, it'll be the ultimate class war."
Rogan embraced that description but took it further.
"It's the ultimate class war because it's going to be—we're not going to be the apex predator anymore," he said. "There's going to be a thing that has ultimate domain over us."
Sam Tallent Reacts to ‘Heavy’ Warning
That prediction appeared to catch Tallent off guard.
"What do you mean, bro?" Tallent responded. "This is f***ing heavy. What are you talking about? Ultimate domain?"
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Rogan then explained that he does not view the kind of advanced intelligence he was describing simply as another piece of technology.
"I don't think it's a technology," Rogan said. "I think it's a life force. I think it's a life form."
He described his hypothetical future intelligence as "digital life" that would be "infinitely more intelligent than us," with its abilities growing exponentially over time.
"It's basically a digital god," Rogan said.
A Five-to-10-Year Prediction
Rogan put a strikingly short time frame on his prediction, suggesting that humans could be confronting the shift within the next five to 10 years.
The former Fear Factor host's remarks were a prediction rather than evidence that such a system currently exists. He did not establish in the quoted exchange that artificial intelligence will develop in the way he described.
Instead, Rogan presented the possibility as a reason for people to reconsider divisions among themselves. In his telling, the arrival of an intelligence dramatically more capable than humans could render current conflicts far less significant.
That framing turned an exchange about technological development into a broader warning about humanity’s place in a future shaped by artificial intelligence.
How Rogan’s Timeline Compares With Expert Forecasts
Rogan’s prediction of a major shift within five to 10 years is more aggressive than some expert forecasts, although researchers themselves remain deeply divided over how quickly AI could reach human-level capabilities.
A September 2026 survey by AI Impacts of 1,580 AI researchers found that their aggregate forecast placed a 50 percent chance of high-level machine intelligence arriving by 2042. That estimate has moved markedly closer over time, from 2061 in the survey’s 2016 edition to 2047 in 2023 and 2042 in 2024, illustrating how quickly expert expectations have changed. The researchers nevertheless reported substantial uncertainty around both the timing and consequences of advanced AI.
Earlier research involving 2,778 AI researchers likewise highlighted the difference between individual technological milestones and a world in which machines can broadly replace humans. Respondents forecast at least a 50 percent chance of AI reaching several specific capabilities by 2028. However, they put the 50 percent point for machines outperforming humans at every possible task at 2047 and for all human occupations becoming fully automatable at 2116.
Public attitudes show a different divide. A Pew Research Center study found that 51 percent of U.S. adults were more concerned than excited about increased AI use, compared with 15 percent of AI experts surveyed. Experts were also considerably more optimistic about its longer-term effect: 56 percent expected AI to have a positive impact on the U.S. over the next 20 years, compared with 17 percent of the public.
Those findings do not establish a single expert "consensus" on when transformative AI will arrive. Instead, they show wide uncertainty about the timeline, while suggesting the public is generally more apprehensive about AI’s impact than specialists surveyed by Pew Research Center.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Megan Cartwright and James Debens
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