- Artificial intelligence changed the course of history
- And this is very scary for the famous philosopher
The famous philosopher and historian Yuval Noah Harari published an article in the British magazine The Economist. He devoted it to the threats of artificial intelligence.
Harari began by saying that fears of AI have haunted mankind since the dawn of the computer age. But now they are real. This is not a fantastic action movie about the rise of the machines, but a reality that is already with us.
AI has acquired the ability to manipulate and independently generate content. I mean, he tells his own stories.
“When people think of ChatGPT, they often think of high school students writing essays through AI. Forget about it. Think of the next US presidential race in 2024 and try to imagine the impact of AI tools that can generate political content, fake news and build a new cult.”
Fake news is not the only problem. Harari is afraid that soon the majority of humanity will draw knowledge not from Google (which always offers at least several sources of information), but from AI. Programs like ChatGPT will become something of an oracle.
“Why look when I can just ask the oracle? The information and advertising industries should be horrified. Why read the newspaper when I can just ask the oracle to tell me the latest news? And what’s the point of advertising when I can just ask the oracle to tell me what to buy?”
Summing up, the philosopher proposes to stop the irresponsible development of AI and create regulation.
His article fits into the recently popular narrative that AI could be a big threat to us. The danger of this was pointed out by Elon Musk and other experts in the technology industry.