If anyone builds it, everyone dies

By and · Published March 11th, 2026 ·

Our audience has really shown up for AI in Context videos, and we cannot tell you how much we appreciate it. We even got a massive shoutout from Hank Green, who’s been one of our YouTube idols since Chana was in high school.

We loved making our first two videos. “We’re not ready for superintelligence” explored a specific scenario of how self-improving, transformative AI might unfold; our video about Grok’s MechaHitler moment showed what happens when an AI company loses control of its own system. But when we planned our third video, we realised we’d been circling the big idea without hitting it head-on: specifically, the argument that the current trajectory to superintelligent AI will kill everyone.

A man standing behind a globe, with the text "If anyone builds it, everyone dies" overlaid.

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This is the claim made by Nate Soares and Eliezer Yudkowsky in If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: a New York Times bestseller with blurbs from people like Ben Bernanke (who ran the US Federal Reserve) and Mark Ruffalo (who punched Thanos).

Why this book?

Yudkowsky and Soares have done more than just about anyone else to make AI safety what it is today: a recognised concern and flourishing research field.

They spent decades doing research, but eventually came to believe that their work would be too little, too late. So they pivoted to communications: trying to get the world to wake up and start taking the risks of superintelligent AI seriously.

And they certainly got the word out. Here are two of the many blurbs they secured:

A clearly written and compelling account of the existential risks that highly advanced AI could pose to humanity. Recommended.

Ben Bernanke, Nobel-winning economist

A compelling case that superhuman AI would almost certainly lead to global human annihilation. Governments around the world must recognise the risks and take collective and effective action.

Jon Wolfsthal, former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and former Senior Director for Arms Control and Nonproliferation at the White House National Security Council

Despite the praise, this book wasn’t for everyone; it has plenty of negative reviews, and our video tries to showcase some of the most important critiques.

Overall, though, I (Aric) found the book compelling, and I felt more worried at the end than when I started. Nate has this plane analogy I talk about at the end of the video that I can’t get out of my head.

What’s in the video

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies has a fictional scenario in the middle: an AI company makes a fateful decision, and things unspool from there.

The video walks through our spin on that scenario. We think it will be accessible if you’ve never thought about these arguments before, but give you something new even if you’ve been steeped in them for a long time.

Some specifics:

  • Aric interviewed Nate Soares for five hours. We didn’t want to hear him summarise the book; we wanted to understand his entire worldview. (Don’t worry — we did make some cuts for the video.)
  • We also interviewed a sitting U.S. Congressman, Donald Trump’s former senior AI advisor, and our rival influencer Dwarkesh Patel, who have very different reactions to the book’s claims. Aric shares where he lands after thinking through it all.
  • It doesn’t end in despair. There’s a real case that we can handle this, the way we’ve (so far) handled having nuclear weapons on high alert for decades. And we built a web page to help you figure out what to do next: getting context, building skills, or seeking opportunities where you’re most needed. We hope it’s helpful.

We’re trying to get better with every video. If you watch it, please tell us what you think. Tell us what worked, what didn’t, what we missed.

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