What if the robots of the future answered to a single entity?
The scenario is more real than you think. AI is becoming everywhere, but few control everything.
A possible future. But unsettling
During a speech at the AI Week, a question was asked that froze the audience:
“How would you feel if in 10 years there were a billion robots, all connected to a single data center?”
The question is not rhetorical. It is a clear warning, supported by what we can already observe today: artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated into daily life, but its control is becoming more centralized.
From centralization to cognitive dominance
Today we use AI to translate, write, design, analyze, advise. Everything goes through models managed by a few major players – OpenAI, Google, Meta, Amazon.
Every interaction we have with artificial intelligence occurs:
Via API
On external servers
Under proprietary logics
With data that we do not control
This means that, if tomorrow one of these companies were to shut down the servers, millions of services would stop. If it decided to change the terms of use, no one could oppose it.
Now imagine this same model applied to millions of intelligent robots, cars, assistants, medical devices, public infrastructure.
1 billion robots. One brain
The proposed scenario is as fascinating as it is dangerous: a humanity surrounded by autonomous devices, connected, active 24/7 – but all controlled by a single central mind.
In concrete terms:
A blackout in the data center can block entire sectors
A hacker breach could compromise millions of units
A business or political decision could change rules, behaviors, individual freedoms
If the future is populated by AI, then whoever controls the AI… controls the world.
Why we need to worry now
It is not science fiction.
Already today:
Some military drones operate with centralized AI
Autonomous cars rely on cloud servers for critical updates
Voice assistants listen and record every word, sending it to remote centers
Schools test AI tutoring on cloud-based platforms
With the exponential increase in the power and reliability of AI agents, this trend risks becoming the norm.
There is a way out: decentralize AI agents
The response to this drift is clear: distribuire il potere cognitivo.
The alternative proposed by projects like QVAC is to run AI agents locally, on each individual device, without relying on a central data center.
A peer-to-peer intelligence, where each user owns their own AI, runs it offline, updates it independently and – above all – does not give up their data.
This model:
Reduces surveillance risks
Increases infrastructural resilience
Eliminates the risk of censorship or arbitrary disconnection
Returns full control of intelligence to the user
A matter of freedom, not just efficiency
The point is not just technical. It is political, social, human.
If artificial intelligence becomes an extension of human thought, then its centralization is equivalent to the centralization of the collective consciousness.
And we cannot allow a handful of companies to decide for billions of people:
What is true and what is false
What is right or wrong to say
What decisions can a robot make in a hospital, at school, or in war
AI must empower humanity, not replace or govern it.
Conclusion: AI is a right, not a service
In a world where everything will be smart – cars, homes, cities, businesses – the fundamental question will be: who thinks for me?
If we want a free, secure, and fair technological future, we must act today:
Decentralize intelligence
Possess the AI agents
Choose transparency and privacy by design
A billion robots connected to a single entity is not efficiency. It is cognitive dictatorship.
And we have the duty to avoid it.
