Historian and author Yuval Noah Harari recently returned to Oxford, where he earned his DPhil 25 years ago, to present this year's Tanner Lecture titled "AI Bureaucrats, AI Religions and AI Boyfriends." Harari contends that language serves as the cornerstone of human civilization. He explains that institutions such as laws, currency, nations, and religions only exist because countless individuals trust the same written texts. Unlike humans, animals cannot engage with these concepts; for example, a cow cannot open a bank account, a horse cannot employ a lawyer, and a pig cannot interpret the Bible or question a priest's viewpoint. For millennia, the very code of civilization has been inscribed in a language that only humans can comprehend. However, Harari warns that we now face a new reality: an entity that will soon surpass our understanding of language. He predicts that just as no human can defeat an AI in chess, the same will occur in "language games." He believes that anything composed of words is at risk of being dominated by AI.
Informational material. 18+.
