Across videos, standup and cartoons, humorists are skewering big tech’s attempt to make AI ubiquitous and inevitable

“Best case scenario, we never have to do any admin again,” says an AI CEO. “Worst case, we all die.”

A young man struggles to the top of a beautiful mountain, words echoing in his ears: “AI will most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there will be great companies created.” At the top of the mountain, he triumphantly holds up a sign: “Build a datacenter here.”

On the New York subway, posters herald what appear to be AI startups. “What if forks were spoons?” asks an ad for Cutlery.ai. Another advises viewers that Ziplink is now known as Froggle.

The posters are real, but the companies aren’t; the CEO and datacenter scenarios are social media sketches (though the “great companies” quote is a genuine piece of wisdom from Sam Altman). It’s all part of a recent wave of comedy inspired – but absolutely not generated – by AI.

The comedy extends across all forms of media: social videos, standup , songs , humor columns , comic strips and art installations . It takes aim at companies’ attempts to make AI ubiquitous, the dangers of believing its every word, its threats to society and the environment. It effectively punctures tech CEOs’ relentless narrative: that artificial intelligence represents humanity peaking; that it is inevitable and all-powerful; that we have no idea where it’s going and it could kill us all, but for some reason it is absolutely essential to pursue.

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