Interdasting.
He is discussing the whole setup for the Matrix and mentions that they "originally had a different idea" before dismissing the question as irrelevant to the story.
Specifically, Neil Gaiman's short story "Goliath" is set in the Matrix universe and includes this alternate view. I have also heard that the "novelization" of the Matrix included this idea but there's no such novel that I know of; its possible that a novelized version of an early script exists (there's a published version of the shooting script for sale but that includes the story as filmed.)
>https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/19817/was-executive-meddling-the-cause-of-humans-as-batteries-in-the-matrix
There was a lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court surrounding the authorship of the story idea. Wonder if the early drafts of the script are in the public record?
https://deadline.com/2014/04/warner-bros-wins-matrix-theft-lawsuit-721009/#!