What to do with your money if we're really heading for an AI apocalypse

Rising fears of an AI apocalypse have rattled markets and forced investors to reckon with a potentially existential risk.

A future where robots take over and terminate humans remains a radical vision, fueled by recent warnings from AI researchers who consider doomsday a possible, but very unlikely, scenario.

Yet it's worth asking how people can protect their wealth from AI Armageddon. We reached out to several investing and personal finance gurus for guidance, and here's what they said:

Wilson said he's confident that if a catastrophe comes, then "gold is going to be the one asset class that will endure."

Cybersecurity stocks could be the "best defense" in the meantime, he said, as they stand to benefit from the events that would likely precede an AI apocalypse, such as Anthropic's recent warning that AI developers should slow down to allow risk prevention to catch up.

"So even if we don't get the meltdown, we get enough worry and enough of a reaction to boost defenses," Wilson said.

If there is a market meltdown, he continued, the best bets might be "miners, real estate, gold, plus things like defense and of course booze and cigarettes as we'll all need something to keep us from going insane!"

Longo championed core investing principles such as having a diversified portfolio both across and within asset classes to avoid dangerous concentration, setting aside some cash, and limiting leverage.

The Rutgers professor said that for mitigating AI doomsday risks, "traditional safe-haven assets" such as gold, US Treasurys, and Swiss francs might be worth a look.

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Longo added that within equities, "software security stocks and defense stocks may attract investor attention."

Worried investors shouldn't "scramble for a single financial life raft" but instead limit their exposure to an AI disaster, Streeter said. That could mean paring their bets on the biggest US tech stocks, maintaining a "sensible cash buffer," and "spreading investments across regions, sectors and asset classes."