From Sapiens to God-Like…

Not surprising, given the arc of his recent books, that Harari’s next focuses on AI. There’s a review in The Economist:

Many may wonder why, for a book about information that promises new perspectives on AI, he spends so much time on religious history, and in particular the history of the Bible. The reason is that holy books and AI are both attempts, he argues, to create an “infallible superhuman authority”. Just as decisions made in the fourth century AD about which books to include in the Bible turned out to have far-reaching consequences centuries later, the same, he worries, is true today about AI: the decisions made about it now will shape humanity’s future.

Mr Harari argues that AI should really stand for “alien intelligence” and worries that AIs are potentially “new kinds of gods”.

https://www.economist.com/culture/2024/09/06/the-information-wars-are-about-to-get-worse-yuval-noah-harari-argues

AI’s are “new kinds of gods?” … “Lessons from history can, he suggests, provide guidance in dealing with big information-related challenges in the present”? Sounds familiar. Hope the citations are all in order Mr H 😉


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