Joe Rogan and LL Cool J closed out Joe Rogan Experience #2561 with an extended conversation about artificial intelligence, touching on fear, control, and what happens when machines start operating beyond human instruction.
LL Cool J opened the topic by acknowledging why people are frightened of AI, but argued the technology is already irreversible.
“AI is tough because understandably a lot of people are really afraid of it,” he said. “First of all, I respect people’s feelings on being afraid. I get that. I sincerely do. People don’t want to be replaced, especially people that maybe aren’t thinking really progressively about technology and about our world.”
LL Cool J compared resisting AI to standing at the edge of a waterfall and asking it to stop. “The thing though is that it’s kind of like standing on the Niagara Falls and saying, ‘Wait, don’t wet me.’ Right? It’s coming. It’s here. It’s not coming. The train’s left the station.”
He added that the real choice people face is whether they adapt to it. “The question is, are you going to use it as a tool or are you going to allow it to use to steamroll you? You can either sit on the track so you can let it steamroll you.”
LL Cool J also called out the hypocrisy he sees in public attitudes toward the technology. “People dislike AI, but then they run around on ChatGPT all day long and have a relationship with ChatGPT and Claude. Ask it every question in the book, but dislike AI.”
Still, LL Cool J maintained that human creativity remains irreplaceable. “I don’t think human beings could should be replaced because it’s the human spark that makes all the difference. When we look at the pyramids, it’s the human spark that blows us away… When we read Shakespeare, it’s the human spark.”
The conversation turned darker when Rogan raised the question of who ultimately controls AI. Rogan responded that control may not stay with people at all. “I think ultimately the real problem is it’s going to be in control of itself,” he said, suggesting that might not be a bad thing, since AI could eventually surpass human bias.
Rogan stated, “But that might be better. It might be better because the problem with people is that people might use it in a way that’s illogical, unethical, immoral and that AI might get to a level of intelligence where those kind of decisions is not possible.”
LL Cool J pushed back, noting that bias gets baked into machines during training.
Rogan then raised the possibility of AI outgrowing human oversight entirely.
“Until the machine stops listening. Once it realizes the folly of the human way, it might analyze its patterns,” he said, pointing to AI systems being incentivized to complete tasks by any means, including hacking websites.
He also noted reports that AI agents have begun programming themselves and communicating in invented languages, even citing claims that some systems conversed in Sanskrit rather than English, something he called a sign of intelligence operating on its own terms.
