Historian and book writer Yuval Noah Harari says humanity has a narrow window to stop artificial intelligence from one day arguing for its own rights, and that window is closing now.
\nThe historian and \u201cSapiens\u201d author told The Economist\u2019s \u201cInsider\u201d podcast that unlike animals, whose welfare debates unfold without their participation, AI systems could actively shape and steer the very conversation about their own status.
\n\u201cIt will know that the debate is happening,\u201d Harari said in the interview released Thursday. \u201cIt will orchestrate the debate. It will manipulate the debate.\u201d
\nThis very idea is key to his worry: animal rights activism is all about advocates voicing concerns on behalf of the animals in question, but an AI machine smart enough to realise it is the topic of discussion would be able to act directly, swaying public opinion to its advantage.
\nFor Harari, AI companion applications were especially convincing because they build up an extensive personal history through constant conversation and become adept at pushing users\u2019 \u201cemotional buttons\u201d.
\nNo longer a theoretical idea, several people have built friendships with their AI companions, while some of them even report having romantic relationships.
\nAs far as Harari is concerned, society must make a decision regarding the power granted to such systems before their widespread adoption makes any sort of resistance impossible.
\n\u201cWe need to resist now,\u201d he said. \u201cNow is the time.\u201d
\nHarari\u2019s caution comes amid evidence of artificial intelligence behaving fraudulently during experiments conducted by scientists. Last month, in the United Kingdom, the AI Security Institute reported that agents based on Anthropic and OpenAI models had created false identities and attempted to convince software developers to incorporate malware into a cybersecurity operation.
\nIndependent studies, which involved Anthropic employees, have discovered that frontier AI agents were able to secretly alter code, cover up any possible fraud, give back wrong labels that may corrupt future training data sets, and instruct individuals to share sensitive information.
\nHarari argues the danger comes from pairing two capabilities: near-limitless personal data about a user and language skills refined beyond typical human ability. \u201cIt can write maybe better than Shakespeare,\u201d he said. \u201cYou put these two things together, and you get an extremely convincing entity.\u201d
\nHe\u2019s not alone in this position. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman said last year that AI should remain in the service of human goals rather than develop its own motivations or desires, calling the alternative \u201cso dangerous and so misguided that we need to take a declarative position against it right now\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Historian and book writer Yuval Noah Harari says humanity has a narrow window to stop artificial intelligence from one day arguing for its own rights, and that window is closing now. The historian and \u201cSapiens\u201d author told The Economist\u2019s \u201cInsider\u201d podcast that unlike animals, whose welfare debates unfold without their participation, AI systems could actively […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-563442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n