Emad Mostaque Warns Internet Could Go Offline Within Years as $1.50-an-Hour Robots Threaten Jobs
Updated
Updated · Trending Topics SEE · Aug 27
Emad Mostaque Warns Internet Could Go Offline Within Years as $1.50-an-Hour Robots Threaten Jobs
1 articles · Updated · Trending Topics SEE · Aug 27
Summary
TechBBQ speaker Emad Mostaque said the internet may go offline "in the next few years," arguing AI-driven cyberattacks are expanding faster than defenses and critical infrastructure remains dangerously fragile.
Hugging Face's breach illustrated that shift, he said, with autonomous agents coordinating attacks while defenders relied on an open-source Chinese model; frontier systems in Washington can already "hack just about anything," he added.
Mostaque tied that security risk to sovereignty, urging countries and users to own the AI stack and their data rather than "rent" cognition from Meta, Google or other model providers that can shape persuasion and politics.
On the economy, he predicted remote digital jobs will be hit first as virtual agents costing about $1 a day become competent, with physical labor following as robots such as Tesla Optimus could work for $1.50 an hour.
Despite the warnings, he said AI could still deliver a "Star Trek" abundance era—curing disease and eliminating scarcity—if ownership is broadly distributed instead of concentrated in a few companies.