Latest news with #Harari
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
Yuval Noah Harari on risks of intimate relationships with AI: 'There could be unknown benefits, but for now…'
Israeli historian and author Yuval Noah Harari has warned that artificial intelligence's (AI) ability to replicate intimacy can alter human relationships. The author, known for his bestselling books Sapiens and Nexus, said that, "there could be unknown benefits, but for now, the risks far outweigh them." Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Harari suggested that while fears about job automation dominate headlines, AI's impact on intimate relationships presents a more unsettling prospect. In a recent post shared on Instagram, the author added a video clip of his discussion which was co-hosted by the Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien , Tokyo College, and Kawade Shobo. During this interview, Harari explained that AI, having already mastered language and attention, is now progressing towards mimicking intimacy, which he considers a potent human connection. What author Yuval Noah Harari said about intimate relationships with AI Captioning the Instagram post, Harari wrote: 'Wouldn't you want a partner that always gives you 100% attention and is never upset? We are facing a world where a new generation grows up with intimate relationships with AI . There could be unknown benefits – but for now, the risks far outweigh them.' In the video, he can be seen saying: 'AI can replicate intimacy the same way that it masters language and the same way that it previously mastered attention. The Next Frontier is intimacy, and it is much more powerful than attention. If you want to change somebody's views on politics to sell a product, anything intimacy is the most powerful tool to do that. A good friend can change your views in a way that no number of articles in a newspaper or a book can do until today. Nothing could fake intimacy, and it was impossible in particular to mass produce intimacy.' Take a look at the Instagram post 'Now, what happens if the new generation grows up? And develops intimate relations with AIs instead of with other human beings. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Again, we don't know. It could have some benefits, but the potential danger is enormous. That people will become attached to the fake people, and in the process, we lose the ability to create intimacy with real human beings. Because really, human beings are much more problematic than AIs that want to become your intimate friend,' Harari continued. 'Its greatest advantage is that it has no feelings of its own. It's never upset. It's never angry. It's never tired. It can focus on you 100%. Understand exactly how you feel and create a fake sense of intimacy,' the author, who is known for exploring human evolution, technology, consciousness, and AI's impact on our future further noted.
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Economic Times
Nexus author Yuval Noah Harari warns of AI's deeper emotional threat beyond job loss: ‘The danger is enormous...'
Agencies Yuval Noah Harari warns that AI's ability to replicate intimacy poses a far greater threat than job loss. Unlike humans, AI offers flawless, tireless attention, creating fake emotional bonds that could weaken real human connections. As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves, fears around job automation dominate headlines. Yet acclaimed author Yuval Noah Harari, known for his bestselling books Sapiens and Nexus , offers a far more unsettling warning: AI's ability to replicate intimacy could fundamentally alter human relationships—and not necessarily for the better. In a recent panel discussion co-hosted by the Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien, Tokyo College, and Kawade Shobo in March 2025, Harari shared a revealing video clip on his Instagram. He explained how AI, having already mastered language and attention, is now advancing toward mimicking intimacy—arguably the most potent human connection. 'Intimacy is much more powerful than attention,' Harari said. 'A good friend can change your views in a way no article or book ever could.' Until now, genuine intimacy was something that could not be faked or mass-produced. But AI has broken that barrier. Harari cautions that a new generation might grow up forming intimate bonds with AI rather than with other humans. Unlike humans, AI has no feelings of its own. It never gets upset, angry, or tired and can focus entirely on an individual, creating a 'fake sense of intimacy.' This, Harari warns, poses an 'enormous potential danger': people might become emotionally attached to artificial entities and, in the process, lose the ability to engage in real, complicated human relationships. Genuine intimacy is messy and requires navigating emotions and conflicts—something AI simply bypasses. While job displacement remains a valid concern with AI's rise, Harari's perspective highlights a deeper cultural and psychological challenge. The risk isn't only economic; it's existential. If humans turn to AI for emotional support and connection, the very fabric of human relationships could unravel. Harari's insights resonate strongly given his broader work on humanity's future. As a historian and philosopher, he has long explored how technological revolutions reshape societies—from the cognitive revolution that made Homo sapiens dominant to the looming biotechnological era where humans might engineer new life forms. Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and public intellectual renowned for making complex ideas accessible to the public. His landmark book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind traces the arc of human evolution and culture, while Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI delves into the digital transformations shaping today's world. Harari's work explores themes such as consciousness, free will, and the future of intelligence. He famously predicts that Homo sapiens as we know them may disappear within a century, replaced by technologically enhanced or AI-driven beings. Harari's warning is a timely reminder that the AI revolution is not only about economic disruption but about how humans relate to one another at their core. As AI becomes ever more capable of mimicking human emotions and intimacy, society faces profound questions: Can artificial relationships satisfy human needs? And at what cost to genuine human connection? This emerging reality invites urgent reflection—not only on what AI can do but on what it should do. For now, the risks seem to outweigh the benefits, and Harari's voice urges caution and awareness before the next frontier in AI irrevocably changes what it means to be human.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Time of India
Nexus author Yuval Noah Harari warns of AI's deeper emotional threat beyond job loss: ‘The danger is enormous...'
The Perils of 'Fake' Connection Beyond Job Loss: A Radical Shift in Human Experience Who is Yuval Noah Harari? You Might Also Like: 'Don't be that person who ignores this technology': Nvidia CEO warns AI will rewrite the rules of employment A Wake-Up Call for the AI Era As artificial intelligence rapidly evolves, fears around job automation dominate headlines. Yet acclaimed author Yuval Noah Harari , known for his bestselling books Sapiens and Nexus, offers a far more unsettling warning: AI's ability to replicate intimacy could fundamentally alter human relationships—and not necessarily for the a recent panel discussion co-hosted by the Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien, Tokyo College, and Kawade Shobo in March 2025, Harari shared a revealing video clip on his Instagram. He explained how AI, having already mastered language and attention, is now advancing toward mimicking intimacy—arguably the most potent human connection.'Intimacy is much more powerful than attention,' Harari said. 'A good friend can change your views in a way no article or book ever could.' Until now, genuine intimacy was something that could not be faked or mass-produced. But AI has broken that cautions that a new generation might grow up forming intimate bonds with AI rather than with other humans. Unlike humans, AI has no feelings of its own. It never gets upset, angry, or tired and can focus entirely on an individual, creating a 'fake sense of intimacy.'This, Harari warns, poses an 'enormous potential danger': people might become emotionally attached to artificial entities and, in the process, lose the ability to engage in real, complicated human relationships . Genuine intimacy is messy and requires navigating emotions and conflicts—something AI simply job displacement remains a valid concern with AI's rise, Harari's perspective highlights a deeper cultural and psychological challenge. The risk isn't only economic; it's existential. If humans turn to AI for emotional support and connection, the very fabric of human relationships could insights resonate strongly given his broader work on humanity's future. As a historian and philosopher, he has long explored how technological revolutions reshape societies—from the cognitive revolution that made Homo sapiens dominant to the looming biotechnological era where humans might engineer new life Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and public intellectual renowned for making complex ideas accessible to the public. His landmark book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind traces the arc of human evolution and culture, while Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI delves into the digital transformations shaping today's work explores themes such as consciousness, free will, and the future of intelligence. He famously predicts that Homo sapiens as we know them may disappear within a century, replaced by technologically enhanced or AI-driven warning is a timely reminder that the AI revolution is not only about economic disruption but about how humans relate to one another at their core. As AI becomes ever more capable of mimicking human emotions and intimacy, society faces profound questions: Can artificial relationships satisfy human needs? And at what cost to genuine human connection?This emerging reality invites urgent reflection—not only on what AI can do but on what it should do. For now, the risks seem to outweigh the benefits, and Harari's voice urges caution and awareness before the next frontier in AI irrevocably changes what it means to be human.
Al Jazeera
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
The Ethiopian bookbinder connecting a city's people with its forgotten past
Harar, Ethiopia – When Abdallah Ali Sherif was growing up in eastern Ethiopia, his parents never spoke about the history of his city. 'When I asked my parents about our history, they told me we didn't have one,' the kind-faced 75-year-old recalls as he reclines on a thin mattress on the floor of his home in Harar's old walled city. Shelves of dusty cassettes line the walls and old newspapers lie scattered about the floor. The father of five and grandfather of 17 pauses to pluck some khat leaves to chew as he explains: 'Our parents were afraid to teach us about our culture or our history.' For centuries, Harar, with its colourful clay houses and narrow cobblestone streets, was a centre of Islamic scholarship and home to a thriving manuscript culture producing Qurans, legal texts and prayer books in Arabic and Ajami, a modified Arabic script used to write Indigenous African languages. Nestled atop a plateau that overlooks deserts and savannas linking the coastal lowlands and central highlands of Ethiopia and Somalia, in the 16th century, Harar became the capital of the Adal Sultanate, which at its height controlled large parts of modern-day Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. Governed by powerful Muslim rulers, it was situated along trade routes that traversed the Red Sea to connect the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. Then, in 1887, Harar's military was defeated by the forces of Menelik II, and the city was forcefully absorbed into a Christian empire. The following decades were shaped by state repression, social discrimination and the erosion of the city's Islamic culture and institutions. Arabic street signs were replaced with Amharic ones, Harar's largest mosque was turned into an Ethiopian Orthodox Church and numerous Islamic educational centres were demolished. Severe restrictions were placed on religious practices and education – once a central part of Harar's identity. It was against this backdrop that Sherif grew up. 'We learned from a young age that if we expressed our culture or talked openly about our history, then we could end up in the prisons,' he explains, smacking his wrists together to mimic handcuffs. Then, in 1991, ethnic federalism, which organised and defined federated regional states by ethnicity, was implemented throughout the country, allowing newfound religious and cultural freedom. The Harari people now belonged to the Harari region, with Harar as its capital. Ever since, Sherif has been on a mission: To explore his city's cultural identity by collecting artefacts, from old music cassettes to minted coins and, most importantly, manuscripts. After years of painstaking searches going from household to household, he collected enough items to open Ethiopia's first private museum, Abdallah Sherif Museum, 14 years ago in the hope of reconnecting Harar's people with their history. The collection of hundreds of old manuscripts has become a particular passion. 'Each book I find, it feels like I am peeking through a window into a beautiful and rich culture that was almost forgotten,' he says. To preserve these manuscripts, Sherif has also revitalised the ancient tradition of bookbinding. By tracing the last Hararis with knowledge of this art form, he has brought a once-extinct practice back to life. The production of manuscripts – as a way of sharing and safeguarding religious knowledge – was an important aspect of Harar's culture, says Nuraddin Aman, an assistant professor of philology at Addis Ababa University. Manuscript making is believed to have emerged in the city in the 13th century, when an Islamic scholar, known colloquially as Sheikh Abadir, is said to have come from what is today Saudi Arabia and settled in the area with about 400 followers. According to Sana Mirza, a researcher at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University who specialises in Islamic art, Harari scripts were influenced by Indian Gujarati, Yemeni, and Egyptian Mamluki styles. 'The Indo-African relationship was very deep,' explains Ahmed Zekaria, an expert in Islamic and Harari history. 'There was a strong linkage between India and Africa for centuries before the British arrived.' Some Qurans found in Harar use a unique cursive calligraphic script said to have been developed in India's northern Bihar region at about the 14th century and rarely seen outside India. Manuscript makers developed their own style that merged local creativity and outside influences. Within families, manuscripts were considered sacred heirlooms passed down through generations. Each Harari house had at least two or three manuscripts – often, the Quran, Hadiths, or other religious texts – Zekaria says. According to Aman, the structured production of manuscripts made the city unique. Artisans were required to get permission from a local Islamic scholar – someone descended from Sheikh Abadir or one of his followers – to produce each religious manuscript. Then, before circulation, they needed approval from the incumbent emir. Still, full-time scribes were rare. 'Most of them were farmers and produced manuscripts in their free time,' says Zekaria. Harar also grew into a centre for bookbinding with artisans making leather covers to protect manuscripts, and people travelling to the city to learn the craft. When Harar was absorbed into the Ethiopian empire, education centres, once responsible for manuscript production, were shut down or destroyed. Without new manuscripts, bookbinding disappeared. Meanwhile, madrasas (religious schools) were shuttered, and children were forced to attend government schools teaching only Amharic. Sherif was born into a middle-class Muslim family in 1950. He grew up during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie, who ruled Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 and under whom repression of Muslims escalated. In the 1940s, Harari elites united with their Somali neighbours inside Ethiopia to organise a rebellion, advocating for Harar to join Somalia. When Selassie caught wind of this, he deployed thousands of soldiers into Harar. Mass arrests followed, leading to dozens of Hararis being imprisoned for years without charge or trial. Selassie's forces confiscated the properties and belongings – including cherished manuscripts – of residents believed to be rebellion supporters. An estimated 10,000 Hararis fled to other Ethiopian cities or Somalia and Middle Eastern countries. While Sherif says he grew up knowing he was Harari, he did not know what that meant outside of being Muslim and speaking the Harari language. Fearing state repression, Harari families were forced to hide their histories from their children. But as a teenager, Sherif could no longer suppress his curiosity about his identity. In high school, he remembers asking his teacher if the city ever had Muslim leaders. 'The teacher responded that we had no leaders outside the Ethiopian Christian ones. After this, the other [Christian] students began teasing me about not having a history,' he recounts. 'I was taught that Haile Selassie was our king, and there was one country, one history, one language, and one culture,' he continues. 'Our community was too afraid of the state to challenge this or to teach us about our real history. They feared we would become angry over it and fight against the state.' In 1974, when Sherif was in his 20s, the Derg, a Marxist-Leninist military group, overthrew Selassie. The group brutally suppressed any opposition. Half a million Ethiopians were killed and thousands were crippled as a result of torture. When the 1977-1978 Ogaden War broke out, with Somalia attempting to annex Ethiopia's Ogaden region that is inhabited by ethnic Somalis, the Derg accused Hararis of collaborating and carried out massacres of civilians in Harari neighbourhoods of Addis Ababa. In their region, Hararis were still the land-owning class, and many were completely dispossessed of their livelihoods as the Derg sought to eradicate private land ownership. Harari youth – like young men from all communities – were forcibly conscripted into the army. When an anti-Derg resistance movement emerged in Harar, the repression increased, while more Hararis moved abroad to escape it. Today, Hararis are a minority in their region, with more living abroad than in Harari. Like many Harari families, when Sherif graduated from high school, his parents began educating him on who he really was. He was bewildered to discover that what he'd been taught in school was a lie. 'My whole life, I have suffered from a severe identity crisis,' says Sherif, sighing loudly and tossing a leafless khat stalk to the side. 'I have always felt like there were pieces of myself that were missing – and I couldn't feel peace until I found them.' After high school, Sherif began a science degree in Addis Ababa, but dropped out within a year when he found out the woman he loved, who was his then-girlfriend, was being forced by her family to marry another man in Harar. 'There was nothing in my life more important to me than her,' he says, with a wide, bashful smile. He returned home to marry this woman, Saeda Towfiqe – today his most enthusiastic supporter – and began working in the family business. It wasn't until 1991, when the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), overthrew the Derg and implemented a system of ethnic federalism designed to promote minority ethnic and religious rights, that Hararis, along with various other groups, suddenly found themselves with the freedom to develop and express their cultures and histories. 'I became mad to understand my history,' explains Sherif, the tone of his speech rising sharply as he smacks his head. 'I really became mad.' Taking advantage of this opening, Sherif began collecting hundreds of old cassettes of traditional Harari music. But he quickly realised that the history he sought existed in the old manuscripts still owned by many families in Harar. Through these religious and legal manuscripts, Sherif was able to glimpse the rich intellectual life of his ancestors. 'Each manuscript I found added a missing piece to a puzzle,' he explains. Over centuries, families had developed a practice of conserving and transmitting manuscripts to the next generation, Aman explains. Manuscripts were inherited or given at significant life events, such as weddings, the birth of a child, or during religious ceremonies. Scholars and religious leaders also gave them to students as a token of appreciation, 'thereby fostering an environment of knowledge sharing and manuscript mobility', says Aman. People kept the manuscripts wrapped in cloth and would only uncover them on special occasions. At first, Sherif, who was 40 when he began his project, purchased the manuscripts. 'Eventually, when the community saw the importance of what I was doing for our heritage, they started donating manuscripts and other artefacts to me.' But Sherif found that the covers and bindings of many manuscripts he acquired were in disarray. The last bookbinder in Harar was Kabir Ali Sheikh, a local Quran teacher who learned the craft from elders and kept the tradition alive until his death in 1993. The ancient art of Harari bookbinding died with him. But Sherif was able to learn the traditional process from a few of Ali's former students. He also went to train in Addis Ababa and Morocco. 'If you don't bind the books, then you will lose them,' Sherif says. 'Collecting manuscripts is useless if you do not also work on their restoration and preservation. If you lose just one page, you can lose the whole book. Beautiful things need to be protected and covered.' It took Sherif two years of practice to perfect the art. He is now considered one of the best bookbinders in Africa, Zekaria says. Sherif has strictly adhered to the traditional Harari way of bookbinding by using old ornamental stamps retrieved from around Harar – which are also displayed at his museum – to block-press motifs onto the front and back of covers, in the same way his ancestors did. In 1998, Sherif opened his private museum in his house. But, in 2007, a year after Harar's old town with its unique architecture was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the regional government provided Sherif with the double-storey former residence of Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael, the father of Selassie who served as governor of Harar under Menelik II, to use for his museum. The museum reopened to the public in 2011. Sherif's museum now houses the world's largest collection of Islamic manuscripts from Harar, numbering about 1,400. Almost half are Qurans, one of which is more than 1,000 years old. There are also more than 600 old music recordings, tools, swords, coins, and items of jewellery, basketry, and weaponry. Over time, Sherif's museum has transformed from a space showcasing Harar's cultural heritage to one actively revitalising it. In a side room of the museum is a manuscript conservation room with locally assembled tools and equipment for restoring manuscripts, with a particular focus on bookbinding. Scholars are still tracking down various manuscripts from Harar that are scattered around the world, Zekaria says. Most of them left with European travellers, especially in the 19th century, when colonialists were expanding into the Horn of Africa. Many of these manuscripts are preserved in Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In the US, the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC alone has 215 manuscripts from Harar. In the meantime, Sherif continues to look after the manuscripts he acquires. 'When I first get a manuscript, I carefully clean it,' he explains. He removes dust and dirt, adds new pages to damaged manuscripts, and fills in the missing text. He covers the paper in transparent paper and has bound and digitised almost all the books. 'Each new piece of information I get about my history, it opens up a new world for me and I realise how far we still have to go to preserve our culture,' Sherif says. About a decade ago, Sherif began training dozens of youths around Harar in bookbinding and has also led training in neighbouring Somaliland. One of his students was Elias Bule, a soft-spoken 31-year-old, who was first hired as a security guard at Sherif's museum. After a few months, 'Sherif asked me if I wanted to learn the Indigenous way of bookbinding,' explains Bule, as he sorts through scattered pages of an old manuscript in the museum's conservation workshop. 'Of course, I accepted immediately.' Bule is now employed full-time at the museum, supporting Sherif's various endeavours and giving tours to visitors. 'I feel very happy that I can give this to the future generations,' Bule says, with a proud grin, gesturing at the papers on the table. 'With each manuscript that is bound, we are ensuring that knowledge is preserved and that our culture and heritage will continue to survive.'
Korea Herald
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Historian Yuval Harari warns of paradox of trust behind AI race
Author of 'Nexus' discusses threats to democracy, truth and equality As humanity faces unprecedented changes driven by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, historian and best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari warns of significant potential risks. While humanity has created many impactful tools -- such as knives, the printing press and even atomic bombs -- Harari, known globally for influential books such as 'Sapiens' and 'Homo Deus,' which examine humanity's past and future, stressed that artificial intelligence stands apart, as it's not simply a tool but an autonomous agent capable of independent decision-making and innovation. 'An AI weapon can independently decide whom to bomb, and an AI system can even develop entirely new weapons on its own,' Harari said during a press conference Thursday in Jongro-gu, Seoul. 'The invention of AI represents a completely different kind of revolution compared to all previous technological breakthroughs. Anyone who believes we can control AI just as we controlled previous tools fundamentally misunderstands what AI truly means.' In South Korea to promote his new book, "Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI," and to attend a forum hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Harari highlighted the troubling "paradox of trust" surrounding AI. Given AI's profound potential impacts -- characterized by Harari as possibly the greatest transformation in human history -- he stressed the necessity for cautious development, pointing out that technology leaders are struggling with critical trust issues precisely when trust is most essential. There is a growing global crisis of trust among people in which leaders spearheading AI development increasingly distrust each other, yet paradoxically place immense trust in the technology itself. Harari noted that whenever he meets leaders in AI technology, their primary fear is competitors gaining supremacy in the AI race and eventually dominating the world. He explained that this fear arises from the possibility that AI development could lead to disproportionate power concentrated in the hands of just a few countries or corporations, dramatically widening the gap between the technological "haves" and "have-nots" -- a scenario reminiscent of inequalities that emerged during the industrial revolution of the 19th century. He also pointed out the rise of cheap, attractive fiction over costly, complicated truth in the era of information technology. The rise of social media platforms has resulted in a mix of fiction and truth and preference for engagement, even pushing politicians to act for more engagement instead of being responsible and truthful. 'For social media platforms, engagement is important. Engagment is a good measure in the entertainment business but not in the news business,' the author said, stressing that the role of journalism is even more important than ever. When asked about South Korea's political situation, Harari humorously noted his initial confusion when he first learned about it, thinking North Korea had finally experienced a coup. However, he also said he was ultimately unsurprised by South Korea's martial law declaration, amid similar political developments worldwide. 'The biggest problem with democracy is what happens if the person that you give power to doesn't want to give it back. Once they have the power, they can use the power that they gained democratically in order to stay in power,' he said, adding that check and balance mechanisms such as journalism and judicial oversight are essential in democracies. Facing profound changes the direction of which remains uncertain, Harari said people should cultivate a wide range of skills -- intellectual, emotional and physical -- to adapt effectively to the rapidly shifting job market. 'The job market will become extremely volatile, continuously evolving as AI keeps improving,' he explained. 'People will need highly flexible minds, with the ability to keep learning and adapting throughout their entire lives.'
