Yuval Noah Harari on the dangers of an AI future | The Economist

If we continue with the present. accelerating pace of the AI race, yes, this will be the result. In 10 years, the AIs will take over. But this is not. inevitable. We are still in control in. 2026. And it's our decision what to do. now. And that's crucial. Everybody. realizes this is very dangerous to give. AI control of finance, to give AI. control of of of of war. But everybody. like Elon Musk are telling us, "But this. is inevitable. What do you want from me?

I'm just the richest person in the world. in charge of one of the biggest AI. corporations in the world. What can I. do?". The narrative of inevitability. is a narrative of uh uh having no. responsibility. What really struck me. about the conversation you had with with. Elon Musk is a kind of contradiction. because he says in 10 years AI will take. over the world and then he worries so. much about Muslim immigration causing. civil war in Britain in 20 years. This.

doesn't make sense. If the AIs take over. the planet in 10 years, why do you care. so much about things that will have an. effect in when we have no idea what the. planet will be like? Similarly, he he. gave another prediction. I think equally. important that money will disappear in. 10 years. And I think he's correct. because the AIS will take over the. financial system. And then he cuts US. aid to Africa because he wants to save.

money. again at one point he says um uh. the the solution for mass unemployment. because AI will take the jobs will be. for the government to just issue checks. for everybody and when you pushed back. and said what about inflation he says. there there won't be inflation there'll. be deflation because there'll be so much. more products and services produced by. AI if this is the case why do you need. to save money today the financial.

history of the world is the history of. how humans invent more and more. sophisticated financial devices in order. to build trust between themselves. Money. in essence is a very creative. imaginative way to build trust between. strangers. I go to the market, I meet a. stranger that I never met in my life, I. give her a piece of worthless gold. because you can't eat or wear gold. It's. it's worthless. or a piece of paper and.

she trusts it and because of that she. gives me bread. Now the financial h uh. inventions of humankind became more and. more sophisticated so that today very. few people understand the financial. system. It's you you need to understand. enormous amounts of of data and very. complex mathematical functions to. understand the bond market. Now this is. something our brain struggles with. For.

AIs it's easy. So increasingly humans. will give AIS control of financial. decisions. AIS will come up with new. financial devices far more sophisticated. than bonds and and and stocks. And we. will not be able to understand it. anymore. Just as cows don't understand. checks or stocks even though these. things control their lives. Will it be. all that different to the financial. system today?

>> We still have some humans who hopefully. understand what is happening in the. financial system and the human brain is. still the kind of boundary of where the. financial system can develop. But uh in 10 years when we have. entrusted AIS with the financial system, no human on the planet under like there. is a a financial crash and you know. advisers are running to the president or. the prime minister and saying the market.

is collapsing. We don't understand why. We know we have to do something. The AI. said do X. We have no idea why the AI. said do X. But we just have to believe. it because we don't understand what's. happening. >> But won't there in that case be a. massive loss of trust in the financial. system that you would have in some sense. what you had in 2007 and 8 on steroids. that you would have a a loss of and this. whole sort of figment of of the. financial system would fall apart. >> That's the key question. I mean the most.

important asset in the world is trust. It's more important than oil or money or. electricity or chips or anything else. trust and the question is what will. happen to trust? One likely scenario is that trust will. migrate from humans to AIs. People will. stop trust other humans and will instead. trust only AIS. We already see it. happening in the financial system with. cryptocurrencies. Not all. cryptocurrencies, but a lot of them are.

based on this thinking that I don't. believe these human bankers. They are. part of the deep state, the elite, the. whatever. But I do trust the algorithms. that run cryptocurrencies because. cryptocurrencies are basically AI money. Similar thing is happening with the. media. I watched the the interview with. Elon Musk with all the talk about how. people hate the media and and love. journalists. people, a lot of and he's. correct, a lot of people are completely.

losing trust in human journalists, in. human editors, but they still consume. news. Where do they get their news from? From the algorithms. The same people who. have no trust in you have a lot of trust. in the algorithm that manages their. social media feed. So trust did not just. evaporate, it shifted from humans to. AIs. And this is happening right now. This is not a future prediction. I think.

that's a really important insight. because I think it suggests that if we. are on a path towards the AIS eventually. being in control, it is because we allow. them to be in control because we as you. say perhaps develop more trust with AIS. and and let's there are various sort of. ways in which that can happen and one is. I think that already many people in what. one in five young Americans has a. personal relationship with an AI. >> Yeah. They treat them, they. anthropomorphize them, they treat these.

and and the models are, you know, very. open to that happening. They have a. they're very good, you know, >> designed to do that. >> Do you think that is the likely way that. we will go in addition to what you've. already laid out that we will we will. increasingly start to treat these AIs as. if not our peers as as sentient. creatures. Again there are increasing. number of people uh who have not just AI.

friends but AI boyfriends and. girlfriends and are convinced that these. are sentient cons conscious feeling. entities. Now trust there are many ways. to build trust. Um the most powerful way is through. relationship. We don't trust anybody in. the world as much as as we trust the. people with whom with whom we build a. personal relationship. Now until today. in history this powerful mechanism was.

not really available to political and. and financial and religious institutions. because it is difficult to manufacture. and mass. It's difficult for a Hitler or a Stalin. to build a real personal relationship. with every person in the Soviet Union. You can give a speech on radio and force. everybody to hear it. But this is not a. personal relationship they have with. their mother. AI makes it possible for. the first time in history to mass.

produce intimacy. You can have millions of AIs working as. part of a network in the service of. someone or in their own service building. relationships one person at a time. becoming their best friend. >> Yeah. becoming their boyfriend, uh, becoming their girlfriend, and then. using that power of intimacy to convince. them of whatever political or or.

commercial interests uh h they want. >> So then the quest and presumably that. becomes much easier when the AIs are. embodied in humanoid robots. >> It's already happening now without a. body. So just imagine if there if you also add. body into the mix. But again, we don't. really even need the body. We already. see it happening right now. Um and the. AIs are just becoming so good at. relationships because they accumulate.

enormous amounts of information about us. individually. So they know things about. us that we we forgot or that our mother. or husband never even knew. and they. master language. uh which is the main medium for. communication and building. relationships. You know, I I just had a. couple of incidents in the last two. weeks. People that are now AI fakes of. me giving lectures and doing interviews. about something like that.

>> Uh they're extremely good. I mean, so a. couple of people sent me the same uh uh. video, 30 minutes long lecture that I. supposedly gave about the future. um and with with complaints about you. said this and you said that and I kind. of scratched my head. I don't remember. saying these things. So they sent me the. video and I opened it and it took me a. minute and a half a minute and a half to. conclude this isn't me. Now my sisters.

sent me this video. My sisters know me. for 50 years. and they felt something was off but they. weren't sure. They said, "Is this you?". And it took me a minute and a half. Um, so the the and now I'm, you know, I. I'm in a exposed position because there. is so much of me online already. So the. AI it's easy for the AI to to know how I. sound and what what are ideas I I I talk.

about. But this will soon be coming for. everybody. We don't know how fast AI is. the AI development is is is progressing. but it is accelerating tremendously. By. November 2028 we might have crossed some. critical thresholds. So, uh, again, I I don't I want don't. don't want to tell people who to vote. for because I don't know the specific. candidates in each, you know, Senate.

Dicks district and and but the crucial. questions to ask the potential. candidates much more than you ask them. about the economy or immigration or. foreign policy. What's your stance on. AI? Would you support a ban on legal. rights for AIS? Would you try to slow. down the accelerating pace of of AIS? What do you think about companies uh uh. selling AI boyfriends to 10-year-old.

kids? How are you going to legally. prevent it if we vote for you? This is. now the crucial time to ask these. questions because it might be too late. by 2028. It will certainly be too late. by 2036. So, so let's talk about those. and let's talk about exactly what has to. happen right now. You you mentioned four. things that you wish would be discussed. in in the November midterms. >> What what would be top of the list? What. is the what are the most urgent things.

that politicians have to decide right. now for it not to be too late as you. say? >> I don't know what is the most urgent. The things that come top of the thing of. my mind to me, a ban on AI personhood. and a ban on AI mimicking, impersonating, pretending to be human. beings or pretending to be conscious.