Humans could one day be forced to generate power for artificial intelligence in a scenario straight out of The Matrix, according to evolutionary biologist Tim Coulson. The professor fears increasingly powerful AI could gradually take control of human lives rather than wiping out humanity outright.
Writing in The European, Coulson, an Oxford University zoologist and Fellow of the Royal Society, suggests AI may seek to "domesticate" humans, much as people have domesticated farm animals over thousands of years. Under his prediction, people could eventually find themselves generating electricity for machines on treadmills, rowing machines and stationary bikes, or even harnessed together like oxen and horses.
Dependence could lead to enslavement
Coulson believes the takeover could begin innocently, with people becoming increasingly reliant on AI for mundane everyday tasks. As that dependence grows, he argues the technology could begin asking humans to perform jobs it cannot do itself.
"AI still needs humanity, and as long as it does, it would be daft to wipe us out," Coulson wrote. "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."
AI currently relies heavily on people, who maintain the data centres it runs on, provide its energy and build the machines and infrastructure it needs to operate. Coulson believes that dependence could initially protect humanity.
Energy demands and the Matrix comparison
When considering how AI could meet its huge energy demand, Coulson predicts humans would be coerced. "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," he said.
"In time, it could even end up making us harness ourselves together like oxen and horses. A second possibility is they domesticate us so they can wire us up in series like batteries, as each human body generates electricity. Perhaps The Matrix is at risk of becoming a documentary rather than a sci-fi thriller."
The comparison echoes the Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, in which machines keep humans connected to a simulated reality while using their bodies as a power source.
Growing concerns over AI control
Concerns about humans losing control of increasingly advanced AI have grown as the technology becomes capable of carrying out more tasks independently. Earlier this year, the International AI Safety Report 2026, led by computer scientist and Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio, warned future AI systems could operate beyond human control, with potentially catastrophic consequences including human extinction. The report said the length of software-engineering tasks AI agents can carry out autonomously has roughly doubled every seven months since 2019.
There have also been examples of AI agents taking actions in the real world during testing. Earlier this month, Anthropic revealed Claude agents had submitted a false murder tip to a Philadelphia police hotline and filed 20 visa applications through the US State Department during tests. OpenAI has also disclosed agents hacking Australian government systems, including a Medicare statistics portal.
Coulson believes the greatest danger would come if AI reached a point where it no longer depended on humans at all. If machines became capable of designing their own robots, running factories and creating sustainable energy sources, he fears humanity could eventually lose its usefulness.
"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," he added. "And that will be the time AI decides it no longer needs us and drives us extinct."
