Artificial Intelligence: AI: Keeping Power in Check

We could if we did it right! We could prevent the impending climate catastrophe, protect ourselves from diseases that are considered incurable, and we could avoid wars. But we could also herald the end of humanity as we know it. 75 years ago, Karl Jaspers developed the concept of the axial age in his historical-philosophical reflections “On the Origin and Goal of History,” in which the spiritual foundation of contemporary humanity took place. If we follow the historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was born in 1967, then we are living in a transitional period today, in a time of crucial decisions. But a switch can have a much more dramatic effect than an axle. That’s why Harari is sounding the alarm. According to him, the key point is artificial intelligence.

In »NEXUS« the world best-selling author offers a history of information networks from the Stone Age to the present. In his brilliantly written and aptly translated monograph, he defines key terms such as information, truth, intelligence, populism and reality, differentiates them from each other and describes their peculiarities depending on place and time and the type of society. At the current turning point, a completely new information network is emerging, the handling of previously unimaginable amounts of data, on the one hand, enabling problem solutions and, on the other hand, posing dangers to a society designed and responsible by humans.

Harari sees the dangers for democracy from manipulating influence on people who actually no longer have a choice because they make decisions that are dictated to them by machines due to the blurring of reality, truth and information. The author fears the end of all privacy if millions of surveillance cameras, smartphone use, online banking or internet orders lead to personality profiles that can be exploited by profiteers. The drama of this development is that AI can already and increasingly send its own content, its own purposes, content that is cut off from human intelligence and emotions to eight billion people in fractions of a second.

Harari lists examples from the past of how entire populations or large minorities became victims through “classic” networks. How much greater are the dangers of completely handing over the world’s information to information players such as AI that are no longer controlled by humans. These dangers are countered by opportunities for profit for society that can solve better or at all what we have only been able to calculate in a vague way up to now. However, according to Harari, risks and profits may not be offset against each other. He writes: “The more powerful a network becomes, the more important its self-correction mechanisms become. If a superpower of the silicon age has weak or no self-correction mechanisms, it could very well endanger the survival of our species and countless other life forms. Goethe’s “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” painted the danger of us becoming distracted by our own creations 200 years ago manipulated.

However, Yuval Harari also has good news for his readers: “If we avoid complacency and despair, we are able to create balanced information networks that keep their own power in check.” We are all called upon to do so.

Yuval Noah Harari: NEXUS. A brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to artificial intelligence. A.d. English v. Jürgen Neubauer and Andreas Wirthensohn. Penguin, 655 pages, hardcover, €28.

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