The risk of submission to algorithms
With NexusYuval Noah Harari seizes AI to make it the central subject of his reflections and predictions. He does it with the same talent as a storyteller and popularizer that we have known him for since Sapiens, but also, the successful author’s critics will say, the same approximations, shortcuts and speculations (as when he writes that computers create, as intelligent machines, new ideas autonomously or that they could well day develop the ability to feel pain and love).
What has not changed in the head of Yuval Noah Harari is his fear of seeing humanity subjected to increasingly powerful, opaque and uncontrollable algorithms. In March 2023, he was among the thousand signatories of an appeal launched by the Future of Life Institute, to make a “pause” at least six months in the development of any AI more powerful than OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4, time for public authorities to develop regulations for this software deemed “dangerous for humanity”.
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From the first pages of NexusYuval Noah Harari drives the point home. “We are busy creating new technologies, like AI, that have the potential to escape our control and enslave or annihilate us.”he writes. Given the scale of the threat, Harari adds, all humans should be concerned about AI and its dizzying developments (which is still very far from being the case, especially among policy makers). “No one should lose sight of the fact that AI is the first technology in (human) history capable of making decisions and creating new ideas on their own.”. And this, while the AI revolution is only at an embryonic stage.
Democracies in danger
Reviewing the evolution of information networks since the Stone Age, the historian and futurologist questions, above all, the future of man in a world where tech giants, mainly American and Chinese, dictate more and more their law. “The computer network, he warnsis a new type of bureaucracy, much more powerful and relentless than any human-based bureaucracy we have seen so far. […] While the potential benefits of this network are immense, its potential downside is the destruction of human civilization.”. Not because of any malice in computers and AI algorithms, the author adds, but because of our own failings (whether as AI developers or simple users).
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To avoid the apocalypse (sic), Yuval Noah Harari considers that the best defense is to put in place democratic self-correction mechanisms capable of identifying and correcting our errors as we go along. This involves, in particular, the application of fundamental democratic principles to the new realities of the computer age, such as benevolence (in the use made of data personal), decentralization (the concentration of these same datawithin an administration or a private company, which could lead straight to totalitarianism), reciprocity (in terms of transparency and responsibility of major players creating or using AI) and flexibility (condition for handing over in permanent question and adaptation to change). This application requires both regulating and regulating new information networks, but also banning certain practices (including that of bots or digital agents, increasingly intelligent and numerous on social networks, who come to orchestrate, manipulate and pollute the democratic debate with fake news and deepfakes).
Yuval Noah Harari can be criticized for an excess of pessimism, or even a downright dystopian vision of the future of humanity. We can agree or disagree with his analyses. But the essential, and the main merit of Nexusprobably lies in its vibrant call to question ourselves about the meteoric rise of AI and to act, without further delay, with a view to shaping a livable, desirable and… human future.
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