Jordan Peterson

Jordan Peterson (born 1962 in Alberta) is a Canadian clinical psychologist and former University of Toronto professor whose 12 Rules for Life and combative media presence made him one of the most-followed public intellectuals alive. His AI alarm predates the ChatGPT era — because the technology came for him first.

“I didn’t say that”

In 2019 a website called NotJordanPeterson let anyone type sentences and hear them in Peterson’s cloned voice. His response, the blog post “I Didn’t Say That,” was one of the earliest mainstream deepfake warnings: “It’s hard to imagine a technology with more power to disrupt,” he wrote, asking how anyone would trust electronically mediated anything in the near future. The site voluntarily shut down after he threatened legal action. By 2023 he was flagging a circulating deepfake of himself disparaging the German government.

His warnings have since widened. Speaking to Sky News Australia in January 2024 he warned that AI risks automating a tyranny that is “absolutely unimaginable,” and at a book-tour Q&A he predicted photorealistic fakes of presidential candidates saying “something absolutely reprehensible” dropped just before election night. In March 2025 he distilled the psychological hazard into a tweet — “AI is a dangerously seductive mirror” — adding that cognitive security now matters as much as basic literacy.

Peterson still engages with the technology — he has discussed using and interrogating language models, and his Peterson Academy education venture operates squarely in the digital economy. But his public through-line is consistent: AI as an amplifier of manipulation, flattery, and centralized control over what people believe.