A caller named Amy Tomkins sparked one of the more memorable tangents on episode 664 of This Past Weekend when she asked Theo Von to draw attention to a Georgia company building an AI data center next to the Nashville Zoo and an elementary school.
The topic quickly sent Theo into a passionate rant about artificial intelligence, surveillance, and what he believes is happening behind the scenes of the AI boom.
Theo opened with a blunt dismissal of the technology.
On behalf of everybody that’s human and has a heart, f*** AI, bro,” he said.
He continued by arguing that most people are already satisfied with the conveniences technology provides.
“I don’t have any actual friends that are ever like, ‘Hey, AI, what? How’s AI?’ Nobody’s doing that. We’re already fine. We can already order our food fast enough. We can already watch a movie if we want on our phone. Like we don’t need anything else.”
Theo then shifted his criticism toward the people backing large-scale AI infrastructure projects.
“The people that want them, to me bro, they seem kind of evil,” he said.
From there, he laid out what he described as his personal “hypotheory.” According to Theo, some people may have already discovered the secret to immortality and are using technology to maintain control over everyone else.
“I believe that some people know how to live forever. They’ve cracked the code,” he said.
“And so suddenly they have to put the rest of us, they have to lock us down. Because if everybody finds out about it, then everybody’s going to be able to do it.”
Theo also painted a picture of a future where surveillance systems, private companies, and AI are intertwined.
“It’s all going to be locked in with Flock cameras or some company like Palantir owning all of this information,” he said. “There’s going to become this kind of score, this sort of social and even emotional credit score and then AI is going to try to become like our new God.”
Explaining that idea further, Theo added:
“Because I think people go to God for their feelings, for help, for hope. And you’re going to have to appease somehow. You’re going to have to do well enough for the data center to grant you whatever you then need.”
Speaking specifically about the proposed location near the Nashville Zoo, Theo suggested the placement was symbolic.
“They’re putting it by a zoo,” he said. “It’s like they’re rubbing it in our face. Because a lot of that is showing control.”
He closed the segment by expressing a concern about the direction of society.
“I think we’ve let a lot of tarantulas that aren’t human start to take over society,” he said. “And we’re seeing the repercussions of that.”
Theo then ended on a darker note.
“The devil is alive, bro. The devil is alive. And the devil is a liar.”
