Joe Rogan used a conversation with theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli on The Joe Rogan Experience to lay out a vision of the future in which artificial intelligence, not human leaders, oversees government and military decision making.
The discussion, centered on Rovelli’s new book “On the Equality of All Things,” moved from quantum mechanics into geopolitics, where Rogan argued that human control of war and diplomacy has produced nothing but disaster.
“My hope is that as AI becomes more and more omnipresent, as we start farming off various tasks to it, one of the things that we’re going to farm off is government,” Rogan said. “One of the things we’re going to farm off is how we interact with other countries. I know that’s terrifying to people, but just think of the disastrous effects that we’ve had so far with humans doing it.”
Rogan pointed to the current state of global conflict, including the war between Russia and Ukraine, as evidence that human leadership cannot manage nuclear risk responsibly.
“If all international military conflicts ended instantaneously upon AI governing the use of conflicts and military weapons, imagine that. Imagine a war where it stops. All war stops on the planet,” he said, calling it something “everybody wants, but no one thinks could ever possibly happen.”
Rovelli pushed back gently, noting that AI removes a check that has historically prevented nuclear escalation. He explained that deterrence between the United States and the Soviet Union worked because leaders were unwilling to actually follow through on mass destruction.
“An AI system is capable of doing that, playing this subtle game of avoiding the disaster by nevertheless threatening to be very vi0lent if attacked. I don’t know. Right now Moscow is being b[]mbarded. I think we’re playing with fire,” he said, adding that he trusts humans even less when they are paired with AI.
Rogan clarified he was not calling for a single global authority, distinguishing his idea from a one world government.
“I don’t want a government. I want collaboration across the world,” Rovelli said in response, and Rogan agreed, framing his hope as removing human tribalism and greed from decisions over war, resources, and diplomacy rather than installing an AI ruler.
The two also connected the idea to eliminating poverty, with Rogan arguing that automation and AI driven resource allocation could lift the developing world to first world standards within a couple of generations if military spending were redirected.
