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WORLD | 04-10-2024 06:46

‘Totalitarian potential’ – Yuval Noah Harari warns of the risks of Artificial Intelligence

Renowned Israeli intellectual presents his latest book 'Nexus,' warning that the failure to regulate AI and the algorithms controlled by technological corporations could pave the way to dictatorship.

Yuval Noah Harari is perhaps the most daring intellectual of our times. His voice rings out in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, a historic period marked by the headlong advance of artificial intelligence (AI) and hyper-surveillance, fake news, constant attacks against those who “promote the truth” (including journalists) and the boom of political extremists accumulating power via emotional factors such as fear or rage.

"The tech giants who created information technology promised that they were going to connect us to everybody and that would reveal the truth. But how come we have the most sophisticated technology in history, yet are incapable of talking to one another? And why does this represent a danger?" wonders Harari.

Considered one of the most influential thinkers of the current day, Harari says that, paradoxically, a broad access to information – a characteristic sign of globalisation – is not synonymous with knowledge or wisdom. 

Such is the thesis of Nexus, his latest book edited by Penguin (Debate) following on from his best-sellers Sapiens, Homo Deus and 21 lessons for the 21st century. In his new tome, among other things, Harari explores the path followed by humanity towards technological disruption and the current environmental collapse, according to his definition.

"AI is different from any other technology previously invented. It is not a tool but an independent agent. Any previous technology like nuclear weapons or the atomic bomb had huge power but was in the hands of human beings who decided the use of the bomb and where. The bomb as such could not decide nor invent any new strategic weapon," explained Harari at a press encounter for Latin American and Spanish journalists attended by Perfil.

In the midst of global chaos, the contribution of this historian and fervent critic of "technocracy" becomes doubly crucial. 

Firstly, to understand the implications of a process which escapes our understanding, especially in these unprecedented times – for the first time in history, humans have created an element with an unknown potential (AI) over which they could lose control.

But especially because this technological advance is already having unpredictable consequences, in particular for the psychology of individuals and democracy as understood as a great "conversation."

"AI is constructing its own narrative," reflected Harari, pointing out: "What is this process doing to the psychology of society? Nobody knows."

 

Risks

Instead of a focus on the positive side which AI offers humanity, the Israeli intellectual says that his role as a thinker is to highlight its "dark side."

"We have to understand that a totalitarian potential exists within AI although not deterministic but depending on the decisions we adopt. It allows in a total vigilance which finishes off any freedom," maintained Harari.

This risky trend towards a technological totalitarianism, a regime controlling every aspect of life , is unprecedented in history. Now there exist tools, like systems of facial and voice recognition or tracing via smartphones, within everyone's reach. 

"The difference between authoritarian and totalitarian regimes is that the former control the political and military sphere while people have a certain freedom at the personal level. Totalitarians try to control every aspect of life. [Adolf] Hitler and [Joseph] Stalin were limited in the degree of control they could acquire over their subjects because they could not follow everybody constantly," he said.

"But AI does not need agents to control every human since it gives rise to a total vigilance which ends all freedom. It can generate an enormous quantity of information and recognise patterns. 

“That’s already happening. Israel is already using cameras and drones in occupied territories, following everybody all the time. We see the same in Iran where vigilance cameras with facial recognition software identify women in their own cars immediately and punish them if not wearing a veil," detailed Harari.

Social networks play a fundamental role within this ecosystem as a sounding-board for fake news, an instrument even used by well-known political leaders (such as Jair Bolsonaro or Donald Trump, cited by Harari at the press encounter), which can even affect the result of an election. 

Along those lines, Harari does not aim his fire against users, who "have the right to be stupid or tell lies" but against the algorithms created by the tech giants (Meta, X, TikTok, Google), whose business logic is based on their content, including fake news and conspiracy theories, going viral.

"They have discovered that the easiest way to capture human attention is to press the hate or fear or rage buttons in people’s minds, thus deliberately disseminating fake news and conspiracy theories to increase the dosage of rage," underlined Harari. 

But all is not lost. Harari stressed the regulation of content reaching a balance with the freedom of expression, thus avoiding censorship.

 

Disinformation and democracy

Harari points out a worrying paradox – in the information era people are uninformed or, worse still, confuse access to information with the "truth." 

"Democracy is a conversation where people talk to each other and try to arrive at a common decision, unlike dictatorships. Until the arrival of the press, democracy on a large scale was impossible. The arrival of the technology of modern information like the newspaper, the telegraph, radio and television, laid the ground for large-scale democracy," explained Harari.

"Without these technologies there is no conversation and without conversation there is no democracy. Today, democracy is suffering an earthquake. Some people confuse democracy with elections but that’s just a mechanism. Venezuela and North Korea hold elections but that does not make them democracies," he added.

To Harari, confidence is the basis of democracy, explaining: "A democracy is a conversation where the key element is the weights and counterbalances – i.e. those who are elected to govern are accountable and must explain their errors." 

The implications of AI for modern society form a central part of the Israeli’s analysis, especially for liberal democracies which, especially in the light of changes in the productive matrix, are being shaken by extreme speeches amplified in social networks, giving rise to a series of questions.

What happens when false information is disseminated? What is the truth? What happens when those who permit society to trust in the veracity of their information, like scientists or the traditional media, are discredited? What happens when people lose trust? Or when they are guided by emotions like fear or rage and reproduce false content? Who benefits from this logic of viralisation? When is it appropriate to censor and when not? Are we running the risk of curbing the freedom of expression? Where are the limits?

 

‘Guardians of truth’

Sometimes it’s all about simply asking questions. That is what journalism and Yuval Noah Harari both do. 

 The Israeli thinks of the media and the academic and scientific worlds as "guardians of truth" in the midst of a context of disinformation. A necessary element in modern society which tends to be attacked by populist leaders, among whom are those who turn rage and fear into electoral motors.

For Harari, AI, like human beings, "constructs [common] sense." Yet there is a key difference between information and knowledge.

"If the institutions which 'tell you the truth' and permit society to trust are discredited, what remains to us as truth? If you destroy the trust in all institutions, they all collapse and you level the ground for dictatorship, the only regime which can survive in these conditions," he concluded.

Journalism thus becomes "crucial" when it comes to "preserving democracy," according to Harari, despite many journalists "not telling the truth" in function of corporate interests.

Harari’s new book, which has already sold 45 million copies in 65 languages, comes in the midst of a context where many people are trying to sustain a normal conversation amid the din of the tech giants in debt to "the truth" after promising that their technology "will connect everybody and reveal the truth."

"Humanity must construct a more compassionate vision, not everybody obsessed with power and the people talking to you trying to manipulate you. This idea that journalism as a whole is simply an elitism to manipulate people is a vision which destroys democracy and trust. We must tread carefully in order not to adopt this mind-set," he indicated.

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Cecilia Degl'Innocenti

Cecilia Degl'Innocenti

Politóloga. Licenciada en Relaciones Internacionales. Periodista.

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