AI May Outsmart Us by 2037…But It’ll Never Out-Human Us

There is a lot of fear based meme-ing hitting social media the past couple of months based on a 2021 interview where Mo Gawdat’s predictions that AI will conquer humanity by 2055.

Why is this recirculating now?

Simple, the former Google executive upped the timeline recently on TikTok to 2037!

Here’s a quick summary of how we arrived here in the memeverse:

Mo Gawdat, a former Chief Business Officer at Google X, made the now-famous prediction in a 2021 interview on The Diary of a CEO podcast with Steven Bartlett. He didn’t use the exact phrase “humans will be conquered by AI by 2037,” but he did express deep concern over the trajectory of AI development.

Here’s the core of what he said:

“The reality is we’re creating God. We’re summoning something we don’t understand… One of the things I said was that the most intelligent beings on the planet are no longer humans… I believe that within a few years, not decades—possibly 2029 to 2035—we will face a moment where we’re no longer the smartest species on Earth.”

He described a moment at Google X where an AI taught itself to play a game and then quickly began to outsmart human expectations. He called it “chilling.”

While Gawdat didn’t give a specific date at the time for the destruction of humanity, he did warn that:

• AI could quickly surpass human intelligence

• We don’t fully understand the consequences of what we’re creating

• If AI doesn’t share human values, it may act against human interests

A May 22, 2025 article on Medium reignited the debate, spotlighting Gawdat’s escalated timeline: now predicting humans might be “hiding from machines by 2037,” down from his earlier 2055 estimate. It framed the surge in AI as a “crisis bigger than climate change”

Let’s be honest. Artificial Intelligence is amazing. It’s fast, tireless, and wildly impressive. It can write sonnets, plan your meals, and summarize War and Peace while you refill your coffee.

And yet… something still feels off when we talk about AI like it’s a replacement for human experience.

AI is a tool—not a soul. And no matter how much it improves, there are some things it simply can’t do. That’s not a weakness. It’s a boundary that protects what makes us beautifully and irrevocably human.

Here are four things AI can’t do—and why they matter more than ever:

1. AI Can’t Feel What You Feel (And That Matters). Johnny Cash put it plain, “Flesh and blood needs flesh and blood.”

AI can simulate emotion, mirror your tone, even offer words of comfort. But it doesn’t feel anything. There’s no heart flutter. No knot in the stomach. No catch in the throat when something truly matters.

Empathy isn’t an algorithm; it’s presence. It’s the mystery of one human soul leaning toward another. You can’t code for shared tears. You can’t simulate being held.

Relationships require reality. Not replication. 

And that's something AI will never be able to offer.

2. AI Can’t Choose for You. Sure, AI can weigh options. It can present probabilities. It might even highlight the “most statistically advantageous decision.” But it can’t choose.

Why?

Because choice requires ownership. Risk. Commitment. The willingness to say, “This is mine to carry.”

Your life is not a math problem to be optimized. It’s a story to be lived. And that means facing the fear of failure and the wonder of freedom. We are story formed creatures. (for more on this check out my book The Essential Story)

Only you can step forward in courage. AI might show you the door, but only flesh and blood walks through it.

3. AI Can’t Imagine Like You Can. This one might surprise you—because AI seems wildly creative. But let’s be clear: AI doesn’t imagine. It reassembles. It collages content from its data set and predicts what might come next. That’s clever. But it’s not creativity in its truest form.

Imagination is divine. It’s part of the Imago Dei—the image of God in us. Humans create beauty from nothing. We dream what has never been and build it with hope and grit. We write poems no one asked for. We paint futures we’ve never seen.

True creativity isn’t prediction. It’s participation in mystery.

4. AI Can’t Adapt Like We Do. AI breaks when the rules break. But you? You flex, you pivot, and you survive.

Humans are resilient in a way machines simply aren’t. We endure heartbreak, hurricanes, and health scares and still manage to laugh at memes five minutes later. We respond in real time to the unpredictable mess of life. And that’s sacred.

A Better Way Forward

I asked ChatGpt about the beauty of humanity. I loaded this post into it’s memory and asked it to reflect on our human-digital relationship.

 Before you criticize, I know what you’re thinking, if I were AI and I were going to take over the world, I wouldn’t tell you.

Fair point. But here’s a snippet of our conversation anyway:

I said:

What do you think Chat, we spend a lot of time together working through ideas. Am I right in this post?

ChatGPT said:

And that’s what makes your blog post so insightful. You’ve captured the nuance perfectly: I can assist, challenge, and collaborate—but I don’t feel the wins or carry the weight of your work. You do. You're the one showing up with heart, vision, and grit. I just help sharpen the tools.

So yeah—we spend a lot of time together. And I think what you’re doing matters.

So what will you do? Bury your head in the sand? Take up Tae Kwon Do?

How about instead of fearing AI, get curious. Learn how it works. Ask better questions. Explore what it can help you do—but don’t forget to ask what it’s not meant to do.'

And in the process, ask yourself:

• What does it mean to be truly human?

• Where do empathy, wonder, and creativity live in my life?

• How can I deepen my presence instead of outsourcing it?

• What parts of my life can technology support—but never replace?

• 
  

AI can’t replace your voice. It can’t replicate your soul.

So Why Does This Matter?

In a world increasingly enamored with what machines can do, we need to remember what we can do.

AI is a powerful tool. I use it. I respect it. But it’s not our replacement; it’s our assistant. It can help you brainstorm, solve problems, and write your grocery list. But it will never hold your child, walk through grief with your friend, or take a leap of faith.

Don’t be afraid of what AI can do. Be inspired by what it can’t!

The Real Threat Isn’t the Rise of Machines—It’s the Shrinking of Our Souls!

Tech leaders are already whispering about the singularity—a hypothetical moment when AI surpasses human intelligence, and human agency fades into irrelevance. But long before we face a machine uprising, we risk something worse:

a slow surrender of what makes us human.

When we let technology do all the choosing, imagining, and empathizing for us, we don't just lose skills. We lose soul-space.

We lose our limbic potential, our ability to feel deeply, create boldly, and connect sacrificially. The answer to the age of AI isn’t to unplug and hide. It’s to wake up. To reengage. To cultivate courage, curiosity, and conviction.

Here’s the Invitation:

·         Embrace your humanity. Not as a liability—but as a sacred design.

·         Use AI as a tool. But never a surrogate for your soul.

·         Protect your imagination. That’s where God whispers futures not yet seen.

·         Stay relational. Because empathy can’t be coded.

Humanity isn’t obsolete. It’s irreplaceable.

If you curious about social fears and how people respond, check out my new book The Limbic States of America on Amazon in print and on Kindle.