Laurent Alexandre, co-founder of Doctissimo and a prominent essayist, declared in a recent interview that humanity is no longer Earth’s most intelligent species, warning of a civilizational shock driven by rapid artificial intelligence acceleration and institutional inertia.
The Shift in Species Hierarchy
Speaking from his office in Ixelles, where he has lived for two decades, Alexandre argued that artificial intelligence has fundamentally altered humanity’s place in the biological hierarchy. “Because we are no longer the most intelligent species on Earth, but the second, behind the AI,” he stated. He pointed to a specific threshold crossed on October 6, when ChatGPT solved several hundred mathematical problems. According to his account, that performance triggered severe anxiety among top mathematicians, including a Fields Medalist who reportedly woke his daughter in tears over the implications.
This benchmark leap highlights how generative models scale past traditional human competencies in specialized domains.
Institutional Paralysis in Education
Alexandre directed sharp criticism at higher education institutions, singling out the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Marius Gilbert, vice-recteur à la recherche at the ULB. Following a debate at RTBF where he claimed the institution dismissed the urgency of AI, Alexandre argued that universities operate under governance models frozen in 1950. While AI iterates weekly, faculties of law and medicine retain obsolete curricula.
“We cannot leave people who are completely out of touch, completely out of sync with the world we are entering, in positions of responsibility,” Alexandre told, calling for leadership changes across academic governance. He cautioned that without rapid adaptation, universities risk marginalizing students into low-wage jobs or universal basic income dependency.
The risk of cognitive atrophy among students compounds this institutional lag. Alexandre noted that children increasingly rely on tools like ChatGPT to complete entire homework assignments, eroding the fundamental habit of intellectual effort within a lax educational framework.
Geopolitical Pressures and the Control Deficit
Efforts to decelerate artificial intelligence development face insurmountable political hurdles. Alexandre noted that while ChatGPT and Claude previously discussed slowing down development paces, Donald Trump effectively banned such brakes, framing any slowdown as a concession to foreign competition. Consequently, the race toward super-intelligence continues unchecked.
Financial resource allocation reflects this imbalance. Alexandre emphasized that while three billion dollars are spent daily on pursuing super-intelligence, negligible capital goes toward alignment research—the engineering subset dedicated to ensuring advanced systems remain compatible with human survival. Comparing the impending disruption to the industrial revolution, Demis Hassabis estimates the AI shock will be ten times larger and unfold ten times faster.
Political leadership across Europe mirrors the academic sector’s lag, characterized by technophobia and a deficit of engineering expertise compared to nations like China. Without a precise, continuous governance framework capable of tracking robotics and algorithmic evolution, institutions face severe disruption.
