--- title: "Anthropic Researchers Warn That Humans Could End Up Being “Meat Robots” Controlled by AI" description: "Anthropic researchers are warning that humans may soon be little more than \"meat robots\" for near-future AI overlords." date: "2025-06-04" modified: "2025-06-04" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/anthropic-meat-robots" categories: - "Anthropic" - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "anthropic" - "dwarkesh patel" - "labor" - "robots" --- # Anthropic Researchers Warn That Humans Could End Up Being “Meat Robots” Controlled by AI ![Anthropic researchers are warning that humans may soon be little more than "meat robots" for near-future AI overlords.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Researchers at one of the world's leading AI labs are warning that humans may soon be little more than "meat robots" for near-future artificial intelligence systems. During a recent [interview with AI podcaster Dwarkesh Patel](), Anthropic researchers Sholto Douglas and Trenton Bricken were surprisingly casual when fretting that the technology they're working to build may soon render us into AI-controlled androids — or, at the very least, further [grim job loss]() to the technology. "There is this whole spectrum of crazy futures," Douglas, who [worked at Google DeepMind]() until earlier this year, told the 24-year-old podcaster. One such future involves a "drop in white collar workers" over the next two to five years, the researcher said — one that he thinks will come to pass "even if algorithmic progress stalls out." Bricken, meanwhile, had more grandiose prognostications about the future he and his colleagues in the AI space are building. "The really scary future is one in which AIs can do everything except for the physical robotic tasks," he declared. "In which case, you’ll have humans with AirPods, and glasses and there’ll be some robot overlord controlling the human through cameras by just telling it what to do." (Yes, you read that right — this AI researcher did, in fact, refer to fellow humans as "it." ) "Basically," Bricken continued, "you're having human meat robots." https://youtu.be/64lXQP6cs5M?t=6977 Douglas quickly jumped in at that point to, it seems, defend the technology. "Not necessarily saying," he interjected, "that that's what the AIs would want to do or anything like that." Regardless of AI intent — if such a thing could exist — Douglas reasoned that we humans are in for a "pretty terrible decade" as the technology takes over. Human labor will, Douglas predicted, primarily be valued upon how well we can do physical work that AI cannot, like so many Taskrabbits for the algorithmic powers that be — but luckily, we make "fantastic robots" to that end. "That's a shocking, shocking world," he concluded. We've got to say we agree. **More on AI robots:** [New AI Startup Giving Robots Virtual Heart Rate, Body Temperature, Sweating Response So They Can Better Emulate Human Emotions Like Fear and Anxiety]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()