The Future of AI – Explained!

in 2002, Wires The magazine’s Kevin Kelly asked Google’s Larry Page why his search engine was free, reports philosopher Yuval Noah Harari in ‘Nexus – A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’ (Random House).

“Where does that take you?” he asked. Page replied that Google had nothing to do with the search.

“We’re really making an AI,” he said. “Having a lot of data makes it easier to create an AI. And AI can turn a lot of data into a lot of power.”

In Nexus, Harari explores information networks from the early days of language to Google and beyond, and predicts where this “information revolution” is headed. “Because the current information revolution is more important than any other, it is likely to create unprecedented realities on an unprecedented scale,” he adds.

It is nothing new. “The tendency to create powerful things with unintended consequences began with the invention of religion,” he writes. “Prophets have summoned powerful spirits who were supposed to bring love and joy, but occasionally ended up flooding the world with blood.”

Harari also warns of the profound implications of AI capabilities. “It’s only been eighty years since the first digital computers were built, and we’re nowhere near exhausting their full potential,” he writes. “What’s happened in the last eighty years is nothing compared to what’s there. €

While tech firms have a direct line to world governments, they also have what Harari calls “a direct line to people’s emotional system.” And this is dangerous.

“If the tech giants obey the wishes of voters and customers, but at the same time shape these wishes, then who really controls whom?” he asks.

While humanity’s ability to adapt offers hope, there are also threats from bad actors. “Human civilization can also be destroyed by weapons of mass destruction,” he concludes.

“An AI developed in one country can be used to unleash a deluge of fake news, fake money and fake people so that people lose the ability to trust anything or anyone.

“AI is a global problem.” Gavin Newsham