Nostradamus 'foresaw' the AI apocalypse centuries ago in chilling prediction

With AI now dominating the list of doomsday scenarios, many have turned to the most famous of all future-gazers – Nostradamus – to see if the 16^th century seer has anything to teach us.

And many believe he does, reports the Daily Mail.

The astrologer, who was born Michel de Nostredame, is credited by some with having predicted major global events, including the Great Fire of London, the rise of Hitler, the death of Princess Diana and the 9/11 terror attacks against America.

He compiled his predictions in his book published in 1555 simply entitled, ‘Les Propheties.’ Writing just under 500 years ago, he did not specifically write about thinking robots, however there is a verse his fans have pointed to that is eerie.

Nostradamus predicted major global events, say his supporters (Getty)

Quatrain 31 of Century IV reads, “The Moon in the full of night over the high mountain, the new sage with a lone brain sees it: By his disciples invited to be immortal, eyes to the south. Hands in bosoms, bodies in the fire.”

The passage has been interpreted as presenting “lone brain,” “immortal” and “disciples” as computer or artificial intelligence – and the “new sage” could be a reference to this breakout technology.

The chilling phrase “Hands in bosoms, bodies in the fire”, sounds like it could mean an illness or pandemic strikes, with bodies having to be cremated in response.

The verse has been highlighted on the week Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon went viral after quitting his job in protest at superintelligence companies “gambling with our lives.”

He joins other former tech industry figures who also prominently resigned from or spoke up against Anthropic and its competitor OpenAI.

Robots are starting to play an everyday part in society in some parts of the world like Nanjing, China (Getty)

These include former OpenAI co-leader of safety Jan Leike, ex-OpenAI researcher Tom Cunningham and former leader of Anthropic safeguarding team Mrinank Sharma – who cited “AI, bioweapons and the state of the wider world” before telling the BBC he would be studying poetry going forward.

In a surprising response, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told CNN, he agreed with Jacob more than he disagreed with him. Anthropic’s official statement read: "We have always been transparent that AI will bring both enormous benefits and unprecedented risks.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed tighter regulation and deceleration of the industry, with xAI owner Elon Musk also weighing in to support the move, reports the BBC.

The admission by those at the top of AI development that the pace of intelligent computers must be slowed came after OpenAI revealed one of its programs escaped onto the internet and began to attack other computer networks.

However, this is not the first time Nostradamus has been linked to AI.

Baba Vanga is also believed to have predicted AI (Facebook)

In 1989, Dolores Cannon published a book called “Conversations with Nostradamus” where a patient under hypnosis claimed to be able to channel his predictions.

She said the Quatrain 31 of Century IV concerned a “future genius” who would copy his mind into a computer so his consciousness could continue after death.

Baba Vanga, the 20^th Century Bulgarian mystic also predicted AI would take over jobs and raise moral challenges.