Apocalyptic Thinking About AI Risks Repeating Medieval Millenarianism Lessons, Says Bloomberg Columnist

Adrian Wooldridge, Bloomberg Opinion's global business columnist, warns that technological millenarianism—the obsessive belief that artificial intelligence will trigger civilizational collapse—risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, echoing patterns from medieval end-times movements. The comparison draws from historical parallels: just as widespread apocalyptic panic in the Middle Ages shaped economic behavior and social breakdown, contemporary doomsaying about AI may trigger the very catastrophes it predicts through cascading behavioral shifts.