In recent years, a growing trend among Silicon Valley’s elite has sparked widespread curiosity and speculation: the construction of luxury bunkers and underground shelters. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has reportedly been developing a 1,400-acre compound on Kauai, Hawaii, since 2014, complete with a 5,000-square-foot underground shelter. Despite Zuckerberg’s insistence that it’s merely a basement, rumors persist that it’s a doomsday bunker. Similarly, tech moguls like Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, have openly discussed ‘apocalypse insurance,’ with New Zealand emerging as a popular destination for such investments. The motivations behind these projects remain unclear, but they coincide with rising concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to disrupt society. Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist at OpenAI, has even suggested building a bunker for top scientists before releasing artificial general intelligence (AGI), a technology that could match human intelligence. While some, like Elon Musk, envision AGI as a path to ‘universal high income’ and sustainable abundance, others fear its potential to surpass human control. Governments are taking steps to regulate AI, but the debate over its risks and benefits continues to divide experts. As AI advances, the line between innovation and existential threat grows increasingly blurred, leaving humanity to grapple with the implications of its own creations.
Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we all be worried?
