Yuval Noah Harari Says Atom Bomb Cannot Decide To Start A War, But AI Can Decide Who To Kill

Renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari has raised the alarm over the unprecedented power of artificial intelligence, warning that it can autonomously decide who lives and dies, posing a greater threat than nuclear weapons.

What Happened: The “Sapiens” author recently engaged in a thought-provoking conversation with podcast host Lex Fridman, expressing his grave concerns about the potential dangers of AI. 

During the conversation, Harari emphasized that AI is unlike any previous tool in history, as it has the unprecedented ability to make decisions autonomously and create new ideas entirely on its own. 

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“You invent a knife; you invent an atom bomb; the atom bomb cannot decide to start a war, cannot decide which city to bomb. AI can make decisions by itself. Autonomous weapon systems can decide by themselves who to kill, who to bomb,” he said. 

The historian also warned against AI’s growing accumulation of power, stating that it could eventually take control of society, rendering humans powerless and clueless about their future. 

He highlighted the accelerated pace at which AI is already influencing critical decisions, such as loan approvals and job hiring, and how it is shaping the cultural artifacts that surround us. Harari expressed fear that humans might one day find themselves spiritually enslaved to alien intelligence, unable to resist its manipulations. 

Watch the complete podcast here: 

Why It’s Important: Harari’s comments echo the sentiments of at least half the big tech CEOs and experts. People like AI Geoffrey Hinton, Elon Musk, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak have expressed their concerns and advocated for a slowdown in the advancement of AI systems “more powerful” than OpenAI’s GPT-4

Meanwhile, others such as Jaron Lanier, known as the “godfather of virtual reality,” Jürgen Schmidhuber, once described as the “Father of AI,” and Bill Gates seem to think that AI won’t take over the world, as shown in the movie “The Matrix.” 

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