Prominent author and scholar, Yuval Noah Harari, recently speculated on the transformative potential of artificial intelligence, suggesting it may one day pen a “new Bible” and create a “correct” religion.
Author of “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow,” and “21 Lessons for the 21st Century,” Harari raises the specter of AI’s impact on spirituality and culture that should give pause to those who value their faith and the sanctity of the Bible.
Unlike technologies of the past that have merely disseminated human-generated ideas, Harari points out that AI possesses a unique capacity for originality.
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He said, “It’s the first technology ever that can create new ideas. You know, the printing press, radio, television, they broadcast, they spread the ideas created by the human brain, by the human mind. They cannot create a new idea.”
“You know, [Johannes] Gutenberg printed the Bible in the middle of the 15th century; the printing press printed as many copies of the Bible as Gutenberg instructed it, but it did not create a single new page,” Harari said.
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“It had no ideas of its own about the Bible: Is it good? Is it bad? How to interpret this? How to interpret that?” Harari continued.
He provocatively suggests that AI can do more. “AI can create new ideas; [it] can even write a new Bible,” he declares, leading us to question whether this development poses a threat to our spiritual autonomy.
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#ArtificialIntelligence | “A.I. Can Created New Ideas And Even Write a New Bible. Think About a Religion Whose Holy Book Was Written By An A.I.” – Yuval Noah Harari#YuvalNoahHarari#TheBible#Bible#TheFalseProphet pic.twitter.com/UIleRncZCq
— Clay “ReAwakening America” Clark (@TheClayClark) June 3, 2023
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He added that “throughout history, religions dreamt about having a book written by a superhuman intelligence, by a non-human entity” and that “in a few years there might be religions that are actually correct … just think about a religion whose holy book is written by an AI. That could be a reality in a few years.”
“The only thing God managed to create are organic beings. All these trees, giraffes and humans – they are just organic. If we succeed, and there’s a very good chance we will, then very soon we will be beyond the God of the bible.”
-WEF/Schwab advisor Yuval Noah Harari
A few fans- https://t.co/voPu1N7rXr pic.twitter.com/3qWrGDrybq— JorJorWell (@JorJorWell) April 18, 2023
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At a separate gathering, Harari drew attention to how artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, has not only mastered human languages but is also primed to manipulate culture.
As reported by the Times of Israel, he said, “For thousands of years, prophets and poets and politicians have used language and storytelling in order to manipulate and to control people and to reshape society.”
“Now AI is likely to be able to do it. And once it can… it doesn’t need to send killer robots to shoot us. It can get humans to pull the trigger,” he continued.
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Dismissing common conspiracy theories, Harari argued, “you don’t really need to implant chips in people’s brains in order to control them or to manipulate them.”
Rather, it’s the insidious influence of AI that we should be wary of. He urgently warns, “we need to act quickly before AI gets out of our control” and calls on governments to “immediately ban the release into the public domain of any more revolutionary AI tools before they are made safe.”
We are on the brink of relinquishing too much power to this new form of “superhuman intelligence.” We are on the precipice of allowing our very freedom to be removed piece by piece. First rewriting of the Bible, the forming on a new, “correct” religion that manipulates us as we give our beliefs and independent thinking over to machines.
While it absolutely sounds like movies we have watched and loved, that “fantasy” is here. If we do not take steps to protect ourselves, society will be at the mercy of an AI-dominated future.
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