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The phrase “I for one welcome our (X) overlords” is a type of social slang that is used to refer to impending changes and future relationships between various parties. Although the use of the term “overlords” has been around for a while, many attribute the birth of the somewhat satirical phrase to an episode of The Simpsons in the 1990s.
In what is commonly thought of as the original use of the phrase, Simpsons character Kent Brockman, a fictional newscaster, upon seeing an extreme close-up shot of an ant, talked about humans’ future subservience to a race of giant ants. “I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords,” Brockman said.
As new technologies develop, the phrase “I, for one, welcome our (X) overlords” has become a way to talk about the rise of artificial intelligence, the building of ever more sophisticated robots and digital entities, and the evolution of computers toward a kind of human sentience. Perhaps the most common variation of the phrase would be “I for one welcome our robot overlords.” This is often said in a satirical way, but there is an element of actual concern for many people that in fact, computers and robots could become in some ways dominant over humans in the future.