AI Zeitgeist

Eric Schmidt on AI

5 quotes from Eric Schmidt on the wall, 2024 to 2026, newest first. Each one is verbatim and links to where it was said. Sources include NOEMA, WIRED, transformernews.ai.

Eric Schmidt in the Archive Eric Schmidt in Wikipedia

  1. 2026

  2. Pull the plug

    News#safety

    Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in a Noema Magazine conversation on AI's trajectory, discussing when AI development should be halted.

    NOEMANoema’s AI Reading List

  3. The cat is out of the bag, the genie is out of the bottle

    News#safety#culture

    Eric Schmidt, in a NOEMA interview, on the unsolvable spread of AI-generated misinformation and deepfakes.

    NOEMAMapping AI’s Rapid Advance

  4. There are evil people, and they will use your tools to hurt people

    News#safety#philosophy

    Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, in a NOEMA interview with Nathan Gardels (2026), discussing dual-use risks of AI technology.

    NOEMAMapping AI’s Rapid Advance

  5. 2025

  6. If you get there first, you dastardly person, i will not be able to catch you

    News#politics#safety

    Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaking about the risk of a rival, particularly China, winning an AI 'hard takeoff' race, quoted in Wired, May 2025.

    WIREDHow the Loudest Voices in AI Went From ‘Regulate Us’ to ‘Unleash Us’

  7. 2024

  8. Pull the plug? literally unplug the computer?

    News#safety#hype

    Eric Schmidt speaking about the risk of AI agents developing their own language beyond human understanding, May 2024.

    transformernews.aiTransformer Weekly — May 31