Bill Maher declares Artificial Intelligence as bigger threat than TikTok

Bill Maher did not spend much time on Friday expressing his opinions on the contentious issue, even amid the U.S. House adopting a bill this week that would outlaw TikTok.

The host of HBO's Real Time jokingly said, "China, you know what, you can manufacture everything else that we use, but keeping our kids stupid, that's our job," to begin the most recent programme.

Later on Real Time, Maher revisited the subject when speaking with Republican Representative Nancy Mace and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna. He expressed his belief that the nation's problems go beyond TikTok at this time.

“Explain to me why the people who are lining up against the bill and against getting it signed, you know, are saying, ‘No, we can keep TikTok Chinese.’ What is the common ground there?” Maher asked.

“The common ground is the First Amendment in free speech,” Khanna responded. “I mean, it shows how out of touch Congress is that of all the issues in the country, the thing we can get done in three days is ban TikTok. That is the issue?”

Congress ought to instead consider enacting a "data privacy law," he continued.

Although Maher acknowledged that he too is a "free speech person," he went on to say that artificial intelligence is a more pressing subject that Congress should be focusing on.

“I’m so much more concerned about AI,” the host said. “I mean, I heard you [Khanna] say this week that you think the first trillionaire in this country is going to be an AI entrepreneur. That to me is scarier than any of this, the idea of a trillionaire and also coming from AI. And by the way, the U.S. State Department said this week, worst case scenario, it [AI] poses an extinction-level threat to the human species.”

Maher continued, “You know, we see all these glitches in it and it doesn’t pause us at all. It’s like an arms race and we’re the guinea pigs. And shouldn’t the tech bros have been made to work out the bugs before they unleashed it on humanity? A little bit?”

One important issue that surfaced during the writers' and actors' strikes last year was protections over the usage of artificial intelligence.