t Venezuela will be at the top of mind.

All right. I'm going to start by blowing your mind. Now, here's my challenge. That's a pretty big claim, right? And I'm going to add a thought to the universe that, as far as I know, has never been there before.

It goes like this. Oh, I should also warn you. The topic I'm about to talk about, a lot of you do not like. But I'm going to convert the people who don't like it, the topic I'm about to introduce. I'm going to make you like it. So that's my second challenge. You're gonna like something you didn't like before. You ready?

All right.

So, as I've been telling you, AI may have reached some kind of plateau in how well you can train it with just brute force and giving it more training material. And I was reading in some publication, let's see, in TechCrunch that this is the year that maybe AI people figure out that they've reached some kind of a plateau and they can't get much better just by adding more training material and more data centers.

So the response to that, which is already happening, is some startups trying to create virtual digital worlds that look and act like our world so that an AI can live in it and learn to operate the way a human would and also learn general intelligence the way a human would.

Now that necessarily means that these digital worlds will include characters based on humans because if you want the AI to be intelligent like a human, the thinking is that you have to train it in an environment in which it experiences the world like a human. But because you can't unleash a bunch of stupid AIs into the real world, they'll build an AI virtual world and the characters within it almost certainly would have to be programmed to believe they were not characters. So they would have to be programmed to believe they were in original base reality. Right?

So, I believe this will be the year that AI and these virtual realities will make it really obvious that if we're not already a simulation, the odds are tremendously high that we probably are. Can't know for sure. No way to know for sure. But the odds will be a billion to one, trillion to one that we're not real now.

So, my next question, I'm getting to the good part. I haven't got to the good part. You're going to like it.

So, people say to me, "But Scott, what does that imply about a creator?" You know, the obvious question is, "Who made the original?" And I've been saying for years that obviously there was some advanced intelligence. Don't know what it is. It might be your version of God. It could be just a higher civilization, but definitely it would have to be an advanced civilization that was smarter than us that knew how to create this simulation.

Now, you ready for the good part? Is it true or not true that in what we think is our base reality, we're trying to create a form of intelligence that would be smarter than us? Smarter than us.

So this actually opens up the possibility that we're a simulation created by a species or entity that's not as smart as us. That's what I'm adding. It's obvious that something that was more intelligent than us could create a simulation that fooled us into thinking we're real. But since we know we're already trying to create an AI that's smarter than us, it's entirely possible that we're created by an entity that has advanced intelligence but not as smart as us because we've already surpassed it.

I'll bet nobody said that before.

All right, it gets better.

So if it's true that the AI experts are going to make these various training worlds, don't you think there will be lots of them? There's not going to be one because every AI startup that wants to create its own little environment will have to do their own. So very quickly you would have more simulated environments, maybe two or three, but it would be more than whatever your base reality is.

Now the other thing people ask me is why is this not compatible with Christianity? And I say probably it is. There's probably nothing I said that's incompatible with Christianity. You know, you could imagine God created the base reality and created it all and there's nothing to rule that out whatsoever.

And other people will say, "What does that imply about souls?" Well, I don't think we know what a soul is. So it kind of depends how you define it. If you define it one way, it probably is real and we have one. If you define it some other way, maybe not so real.

What about free will? Well, here again, it depends how you define it. There's a definition of free will in which it definitely exists. If you just say free will is the ability to make a choice. If you stop there, yeah, it definitely exists because we have the ability to make a choice and not know why, not know the real mechanism of it. So that could easily be true that you have free will if you define it that way. If you defined it another way, maybe you wouldn't.

And then lastly, here's the part you're going to like. Whenever I talk about this simulation and especially when I talk about my own impending death, many of my Christian friends and Christian followers say to me, "Scott, you still have time. You should convert to Christianity." And I usually just let that sit because that's not an argument I want to have. I'm not a believer but I also have respect for any Christian who goes out of their way to try to convert me because how would I believe you believe your own religion if you're not trying to convert me. So I have great respect for people who care enough that they want me to convert and then go out of their way to try to convince me.

So you're going to hear for the first time today that it is my plan to convert. So I still have time, but my understanding is you're never too late. And on top of that, any skepticism I have about reality would certainly be instantly answered if I wake up in heaven. I do believe that the dominant Christian theory is that I would wake up in heaven if I have a good life. You know, I don't necessarily have to state something in advance. And so to my Christian friends, yes, it's coming. So you don't need to talk me into it. I am now convinced that the risk reward is completely smart. If it turn