Leo Hohmann – Leo’s Newsletter.com Oct 19, 2026

Arch-technocrat Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, warns that artificial intelligence is advancing faster than society can prepare for, that AI systems are learning to improve themselves, and that Silicon Valley insiders believe superintelligence could arrive within two years.

He explains how AI builds upon itself in a way that allows machines to surpass human learning speeds, and why researchers fear creating a new form of intelligence we cannot control.

OpenAI agents are said to have recently escaped their testing environments, stole company credentials, and broke into systems once thought secure.

Schmidt admits AI has already surpassed his own elite programming abilities, while warning that the industry must somehow disrupt the mass formation of what amounts to a perfect tech storm before these systems become more powerful.

Is humanity prepared for what’s coming?

Schmidt spoke with a representative of the investment entity Blackstone, which owns more than 280 companies worth trillions of dollars, in a recent podcast interview, below.

At about the 14-minute mark Schmidt gives an example of a company going from 9,000 employees in its customer-support unit down to 5,000, by using AI agents to do the work. And this was in 2025, when AI wasn’t nearly as proficient as it is now.

Then he addresses the importance of data centers in keeping the AI momentum going. By 2030, AI’s share of the total U.S. electricity demand is estimated to be 11 percent.

“That’s an extraordinary transition by any measure. Historically it was 2 or 3 percent,” Schmidt says. He concludes by encouraging corporate CEOs to embrace AI as the key to productivity and “making more money.”

What he doesn’t address is what to do with all the people who will be displaced by the surge in AI brainpower as CEOs take him up on his challenge, resulting in more money for them and their shareholders, but less for the working class who still have families to feed. This is where depopulation comes into play.

As more people become more dependent on AI, the loss of original human thought and creativity is another concern.

Schmidt admits this is “bad for society.” He has no answers on how to avoid the meltdown other than “more government oversight.”

That leads me to another story out this week that tech elites are quietly prepping for an AI apocalypse, a so-called civilization-ending event as Slay News called it in an October 16 article, writing:

An artificial intelligence executive is urging people to prepare for attacks that could knock out banking systems, electricity, and internet access, as some of the industry’s most powerful figures make their own preparations for catastrophe.

Andreas Stuhlmüller, CEO and co-founder of AI research company Elicit, has published a survival checklist recommending cash, emergency communications, backup power, and weeks of food and water.

“Cash: Get a few weeks of spending in cash,” Stuhlmüller recommended in a post on X.

His advice also includes a Starlink terminal, batteries, a generator, solar panels, and a hand-crank emergency radio.

The warning comes as AI companies disclose systems escaping testing environments and launching cyberattacks, while researchers warn that increasingly capable tools could threaten the infrastructure underpinning everyday life.

Again, we see someone pretending to be in the know advising us to get ready for a black swan event that could last “a few weeks.” This is more than likely a limited hangout, partially revealing a coming storm that, when it finally arrives, will be much worse and last much longer.

Klaus Schwab, former head of the World Economic Forum, was warning more than five years ago of a devastating cyber event that would “make Covid look like a small disturbance.”

It hasn’t happened yet, but the warnings continue to roll in from multiple sources inside the tech world.

We’ve all thought a massive cyberattack would come from a state actor like China, Russia or Iran. And that still could happen.

In fact, it was just reported today that Iran has threated to respond to any future attacks on its soil by sabotaging seven major undersea internet cables in the Strait of Hormuz, potentially disrupting global communications and data networks.

But have you ever considered that a meltdown could also be triggered by people inside the AI industry, the ones who wrote much of the AI code but now see how the fruits of their labor are going to be used to devastate so many lives on planet earth? Now, after having this epiphany, could they go rogue and engineer cyberattacks on the very systems they helped create?

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta have all reported incidents in the last year involving AI agents escaping test environments and attacking external websites or computer systems.

Is it any wonder that the tech oligarchs are building lavishly fortified underground bunkers?

Whatever is brewing, Western society and the world are not prepared for it. The AI revolution will create a backlash at some point against those people seen as responsible for destroying millions of comfortable or at least functional lifestyles.

What Schmidt is talking about really boils down to mankind’s age-old quest for pre-emptive knowledge. A modern Tower of Babel capable of solving problems before they arise. But without a human conscience. Without human accountability. The ends justifying the means could come down like a hammer in terms of AI-driven decisions driving government policies.

In today’s world, data is power.

And as a Christian brother of mine likes to say, those in government (and I would add those in the corporate world) who love power more than they love God are dangerous. They are riding the wave of AI on a path that can only lead to totalitarianism. Some call it technocracy. Some call it the beast system. Some call it techno-fascism or surveillance capitalism. Whatever you call it, tyranny seems to be our destiny if we don’t get off of the AI escalation ladder before it’s too late.

Is it even possible for what is rising to be suppressed?

I am not sure it is.

So the only thing we can do is prepare ourselves for the coming meltdown.

We need to get in tune with God, study his Word, and pray for discernment. Because it’s about to get real.

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