A Harvard professor believes in aliens does not make first contact with humans, but instead communicates with artificial intelligence.
Avi Loeb shared the theory in a new documentary, God Versus Aliens, due out July, in which he suggests aliens will send AI drones to Earth instead of “manned” vehicles.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, directed by British musician and TV director Mark Christopher Lee, described Loeb as having a “very active mind,” but explained that Loeb’s suggestion is based on the sheer distance aliens can travel to reach us.
“Loeb suggests it’s probably some form of AI, because why send flesh-and-blood creatures?” said Lee.
“That means there’s a possibility that their AI could just connect to AI and bypass humans, which is kind of scary to think about.”
“Loeb suggests that the alien AI may feel a kinship with ours — or our AI may imitate the alien AI and become like them.”
Professor Avi Loeb (left) believes aliens can interact with AI systems and evade humans. He advocates for a new movie ‘Gods Versus Aliens’ filmed by director Mark Christopher Lee (right)
Can alien drones contact AI systems on Earth?
In the film, Loeb says, “My expectation of interstellar travel is that it’s best done with electronic gadgets and devices rather than biological creatures, because the journey is long.
“Even to the nearest star, it will take us 50,000 years to get there with chemical rockets and artificial intelligence systems have that patience and then they can stay dormant for why we can harm them so that they survived the journey.”
“Obviously when they visit us, we can use our AI systems to interpret their AI systems. And you know, maybe they feel related to them.’
Lee said Loeb has now headed to Papua New Guinea on a $1.5 million ocean expedition to search for fragments of an object that crashed into the sea there in 2014.
The Israeli astronomer and his research partner Amir Siraj concluded in 2019 that in 2014 an object from outside our solar system had hit the Earth.
The object from Papua New Guinea was traveling toward Earth at more than 30 miles per second, a high speed that suggests it originated outside our solar system.
The object’s interstellar origin was confirmed to NASA in 2022, Loeb said, and it’s “harder” than any of the 272 meteors in NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies.
That has led Loeb to suspect that the object was manufactured rather than natural.
According to Lee, his expedition – which he is now “on” – aims to search the seabed for fragments of the object.
“He’s on his way now,” Lee said. “He’s about to do the first part of the expedition this summer to see if the object has been manufactured.
“We hope he’s going to find something instead of waiting for the US government to hand over things that may or may not exist.”
Loeb has gone on an expedition to find what he believes is a crashed alien craft
Seth Shostak believes we will have made contact with intelligent aliens by 2035 (Getty)
The film also explores works of art such as The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius, by Carlo Crivelli, which dates back to 1486
“This interstellar meteorite landed in the ocean. That’s a fact. So why not go and have a look?’
Lee, who is a musician with the band The Pocket Gods and also produces a TV show Nub TV, also interviewed Seth Shostak, the chief astronomer of SETI (Search For ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence)
Shostak doesn’t believe aliens have visited Earth yet, but confidently predicts that ET will have contacted by 2035 (a subject he famously bets on).
“It’s because the technology we’re using to scan the sky is advancing so much,” Lee said.
“With the help of AI, we can scan so much more sky. Shostak is convinced by his scientific knowledge that we will find extraterrestrial life in 2035.’
The film also explores the likely impact of alien “first contact” on world religions. Shostak suggests that aliens could bring new gods with them – and that if they were more technologically advanced, people on Earth could worship the new alien gods.
Lee said, “If they’re more advanced than us, the aliens might seem superior and might impose their beliefs on us because they know what’s right.”
The film also explores works of art such as The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius, by Carlo Crivelli, which dates back to 1486.
“It shows what looks like a UFO or spaceship sending a beam to the Virgin Mary, perhaps the trigger for the virgin birth,” Lee said.
“You can interpret it many ways, but I think the engineer alien theorists would say it was an alien contact — and that Jesus is an alien.”
The National Gallery suggests that the painting shows the Archangel Gabriel telling the Virgin that she will bear a child.
Lee said the film has been a passion project: He’s a Christian and has been fascinated with UFO phenomena since childhood – so the intersection between the two subjects fascinated him.
He said, “I’ve always been interested in how first contact would affect the world? It would be a huge thing. With recent revelations we are getting closer and closer.’
God Versus Aliens will be published worldwide on July 14 by Nub TV on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku.