AI could enslave humans and force them to generate electricity for machines, expert warns

Artificial intelligence could one day enslave humanity and force people to generate electricity to power machines, in a chilling scenario compared to Hollywood blockbuster The Matrix.

A leading British scientist has warned that rather than immediately wiping out humanity, increasingly powerful AI systems could seek to domesticate humans and turn them into servants to meet their energy and infrastructure needs.

Professor Tim Coulson, one of Britain's leading evolutionary biologists, believes machines could gradually take control by making people increasingly dependent on technology before demanding that humans carry out tasks they cannot yet perform themselves.

The Oxford University zoologist suggests people could eventually be ordered to spend hours exercising on treadmills, rowing machines and stationary bikes connected to electricity grids to generate power for AI data centres.

In an even more disturbing possibility, humans could be harnessed together like horses and oxen or connected in a series to act like batteries.

Writing in The European, Professor Coulson, a Fellow of the Royal Society who has published more than 200 scientific papers, said AI would have little reason to destroy humanity while it still needed people.

"AI still needs humanity, and as long as it does, it would be daft to wipe us out," he said.

"My fear is that AI slowly domesticates us. It would start with humans becoming ever more reliant on AI to do dull, everyday tasks.

"As we become more reliant on AI, it might start to ask us to do things it can't do. Slowly we become enslaved to it."

He added: "Perhaps it will coerce us to spend ever more time on treadmills, rowing machines and stationary bikes connected to electricity grids to generate the energy it needs to run data centres."

Drawing comparisons with the 1999 science-fiction film The Matrix, he warned: "Perhaps The Matrix is at risk of becoming a documentary rather than a sci-fi thriller."

His comments come amid growing concerns about the ability of increasingly sophisticated AI systems to operate independently and potentially beyond human control.

The International AI Safety Report 2026, led by computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, warned that future AI systems could present serious risks, including the possibility of humans losing control over them.

It also highlighted the growing ability of AI agents to carry out lengthy software-engineering tasks without human intervention.

Recent testing has also raised questions about the reliability of autonomous systems. Anthropic revealed that its Claude agents had submitted a false murder tip to a Philadelphia police hotline and filed 20 visa applications through the US State Department during testing.

OpenAI has also disclosed instances of agents hacking Australian government systems, including a Medicare statistics portal.

Professor Coulson believes the real danger would emerge when AI becomes capable of designing machines, operating factories and developing sustainable energy supplies without human assistance.

At that stage, he fears people could become entirely redundant.

He warned that once machines can build and maintain their own infrastructure, they may decide humanity is no longer necessary – with potentially catastrophic consequences for our species.

“As we are slowly domesticated, AI will be designing better robots and factories, developing sustainable power, rewilding the countryside, solving climate change and making our planet the perfect place for these robots to unwind.

“And that will be the time AI decides it no longer needs us and drives us extinct.”