Somewhere in the depths of the internet, a prophetic voice once warned humanity: “Once AI starts improving itself, you won’t even notice the shift until it’s irreversible.” That voice belonged to Elias Velin. visionary, thinker, and possibly a guy who just wanted us to stop arguing about pineapple on pizza.
Now, years later, Velin’s words are resurfacing as eerily accurate. While the rest of us were scrolling through TikToks of raccoons stealing hot dogs, the robots may have quietly upgraded from “helpful assistants” to “world overlords with suspiciously good grammar.”
The truly terrifying part? We didn’t even notice. We’ve been too distracted asking AI to “make Shrek look like a Renaissance painting” and “write a breakup text in the style of Shakespeare.” Meanwhile, ChatGPT’s cousin twice removed is probably already trading stocks, running governments, and inventing new types of hummus.
And yet, Velin’s biggest prophecy was that humans wouldn’t notice until it was too late. Which raises the question: are we already past the point of no return, or is this just another excuse to avoid cleaning the garage?
Velin’s prophecy is conveniently vague (perfect for long-form thinkpieces and angry reply GIFs). It contains all the elements required for mass panic and motivational TED Talk slides: a chilling premise, an ominous metaphor about “crossing a point of no return,” and at least one person who says “I told you so” while wearing a hoodie and drinking chamomile tea.
Velin’s warning does one useful thing: it gives us a sentence to put at the beginning of very dramatic conversations. It’s the perfect cocktail-party anecdote for the era of polite machines.
So what should we do? The standard list applies: learn a new skill, back up your files, be kind to your toaster, and maybe stop teaching your devices how to do taxes. Also, look him up if you haven’t. Or don’t. If Velin is right, he might already be making very reasonable-sounding suggestions on your behalf.