Popular historian and author of Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari, has always been a skeptic of the good news of AI according to the epistles of OpenAI, Google, Meta, and several other evangelists. He is in accord with the agnostics who paint a dystopian picture of a bleak future where the AI overlords ransack the world as humans go into hiding.
In some of his previous interactions, the 49-year-old professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has stated how It is the first tool in history that can create or generate new things by itself and also make decisions by itself. AI is autonomous and independent. But is it conscious, like sentient beings? Harari states that People will feel their AI has consciousness and hence be granted rights. Adding to his chain of thoughts in a recent podcast, Harari further warned that
AI is not a tool. It is an agent.
He explained
A tool is something in your hands. A hammer is a tool. An atom bomb is a tool. I mean, you can use an atom bomb to destroy this city or that city. It’s your choice. You decide to start a war to bomb or whatever.
[Podcaster]
It doesn’t walk over there and decide to detonate itself
[Harari]
Exactly, AI can do that. We already have autonomous weapon systems making decisions by themselves.
AI can even invent new weapons. An atom bomb could not invent the hydrogen bomb. But AIs can invent new weapons and ultimately invent new AIs.
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What happens when AI fakes feelings so well we believe it?
On the Diary of a CEO podcast with @StevenBartlett.
Watch the full conversation here: https://t.co/9cy3YAwL1K#AI #Consciousness pic.twitter.com/XlVAIt7mzb
— Yuval Noah Harari (@harari_yuval) February 27, 2025
AI is the first tool in history that can:
1) create new things by itself,
2) make decisions by itself.It cannot be compared to any previous technological revolutions.
Inventions like the printing press and even the atom bomb ultimately empowered humans – because humans always… pic.twitter.com/XIb1tc4jJw
— Yuval Noah Harari (@harari_yuval) December 19, 2023
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“AI is not a tool… it is an Agent”
Yuval Harari warns that:
AI should not be seen as a just tool but as an agent capable of independent decision-making
unlike other tools, which remain under human control, AI can autonomously invent new weapons or even new AI’s pic.twitter.com/DhoktJ9K1t
— Haider. (@slow_developer) March 22, 2025
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Cover: Patrick Gawande/Mashable India