I am worried about what will happen when AI systems begin to interact with each other. As humans, we are not all that smart on our own. You might think you are smarter than a chimp, but if I stranded you both on a desert island, my money is on the chimp surviving longer…
— Cognitive neuroscientist and DeepMind AI researcher Chris Summerfield, quoted by Nick Hilden in the ‘Nautilus’ magazine article ‘AI Has Already Run Us Over the Cliff’, June 12, 2025.
When I read that quote from Chris Summerfield, about whether I could survive longer than a chimpanzee, if we were both stranded on a desert island, my initial thought was, “How unlikely is that?”
That both of us, me and the chimp, would get stranded on the same desert island, at the very same time.
Yes, maybe the chimp could survive longer… not necessarily because he’s smarter, but simply because he can climb coconut trees better than I can.
My next thought was, “But what if I have a phone, and the chimp doesn’t? Google searches can be extremely helpful when you’re trying to out-survive a chimpanzee.” But then I quickly realized that there’s probably no cell service on a desert island.
Unless this was, like, a reality TV show, like ‘Survivor’. Then maybe there would be cell service.
But it turns out, neuroscientist Chris Summerfield is not actually interested in whether I’m smarter than a chimpanzee. He’s concerned that I’m not smarter than AI.
First of all, this is a contest I would gladly agree to. Put both of us on a desert island — me, and an AI data center — and see who survives. Mano a mano!
I will even forego having a phone.
Ha! The AI data center is going to run out of electricity within the first couple of hours.
Of course, this ‘Survivor’ scenario is just as unlikely as the one with me and the chimp. Maybe even more unlikely.
I had not heard of neuroscientist Chris Summerfield until I came across last week’s interview in Nautilus magazine. Apparently Dr. Summerfield has concerns about how quickly AI is developing, and he published a book this year called These Strange New Minds: how AI learned to talk and what it means.
In the book, he describes the classic cartoon scene in which Wile E. Coyote has just been led over a cliff by Road Runner, and as the coyote hovers in the air for a moment, a thousand feet above the canyon floor, he’s feeling with his feet for the solid ground that’s unfortunately nonexistent.
The coyote gives us a pained look, and begins his rapid descent.
“I am writing this book because we have just gone over that cliff,” writes Dr. Summerfield. “The safe ground we have left behind is a world where humans alone generate knowledge.”
It’s my understanding that there’s a thing called ‘terminal velocity’, and that it was calculated by actual human scientists prior to the invention of AI.
When any particular object falls off a cliff — say, for example, a coyote, or a chimpanzee — it falls faster and faster for the first few seconds until the force of gravity and the air resistance come into agreement, and the object stops accelerating and falls at a consistent speed. This is the ‘terminal velocity’.
Because of air resistance, the shape of the object is even more important than the weight of the object. A sheet of paper, tossed off a cliff, will drift lazily down to the canyon floor. But scrunch that same sheet of paper into a tight ball, and it will fall much faster.
In the case of the coyote, he can spread out his arms and legs and slow his descent slightly to about 180 feet per second.
Some people are not interested in slowing down their descent. Competition speed skydivers tuck in their arms and legs and fly in a head-down position and can reach speeds of 490 feet per second. But they have a parachute.
Coyotes and chimpanzees have thus far failed to invent parachutes, which is one reason why we humans tend to believe we the smarter species.
But coyotes and chimpanzees have also not invented AI, which is why they might believe they are the smarter species.
My point on bringing up ‘terminal velocity’ is not only to show how smart I am, but also because any human activity has a built-in ‘terminal velocity’. We seem to be in the phase of rapid acceleration where AI is concerned, where we’ve just fallen off the cliff, and some of us — like maybe Dr. Summerfield — are spreading out their arms and legs to slow down the descent.
When actually, we need a parachute.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.