{"id":15649,"date":"2024-08-24T11:39:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T09:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/24\/never-summon-a-power-you-cant-control-yuval-noah-harari-on-how-ai-could-threaten-democracy-and-divide-the-world\/"},"modified":"2024-08-24T11:39:13","modified_gmt":"2024-08-24T09:39:13","slug":"never-summon-a-power-you-cant-control-yuval-noah-harari-on-how-ai-could-threaten-democracy-and-divide-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/24\/never-summon-a-power-you-cant-control-yuval-noah-harari-on-how-ai-could-threaten-democracy-and-divide-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Never summon a power you can\u2019t control\u2019: Yuval Noah Harari on how AI could threaten democracy and divide the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forget Hollywood depictions of gun-toting robots running wild in the streets \u2013 the reality of artificial intelligence is far more dangerous, warns the historian and author in an exclusive extract from his new book<\/p>\n

Throughout history many traditions have believed that some fatal flaw in human nature tempts us to pursue powers we don\u2019t know how to handle. The Greek myth of Phaethon told of a boy who discovers that he is the son of Helios, the sun god. Wishing to prove his divine origin, Phaethon demands the privilege of driving the chariot of the sun. Helios warns Phaethon that no human can control the celestial horses that pull the solar chariot. But Phaethon insists, until the sun god relents. After rising proudly in the sky, Phaethon indeed loses control of the chariot. The\u00a0sun veers off course, scorching all vegetation, killing numerous beings and threatening to burn the Earth itself. Zeus intervenes and strikes Phaethon with a thunderbolt. The conceited human drops from the sky like a falling star, himself on fire. The gods reassert control of the sky and save the world.<\/p>\n

Two thousand years later, when the Industrial Revolution was making its first steps and machines began replacing humans in numerous tasks, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published a similar cautionary tale titled The Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice. Goethe\u2019s poem (later popularised as a Walt Disney animation starring Mickey Mouse) tells of an old sorcerer who leaves a young apprentice in charge of his workshop and gives him some chores to tend to while he is gone, such as\u00a0fetching water from the river. The apprentice decides to make things easier for himself and, using one of the\u00a0sorcerer\u2019s spells, enchants a broom to fetch the water for him. But the apprentice doesn\u2019t know how to stop the broom, which relentlessly fetches more and more water, threatening to flood the workshop. In panic, the apprentice cuts the enchanted broom in two with an axe, only to see each half become another broom. Now two enchanted brooms are inundating the workshop with water. When the old sorcerer returns, the apprentice pleads for help: \u201cThe spirits that I summoned, I now cannot rid myself of again.\u201d The sorcerer immediately breaks the spell and stops the flood. The lesson to the apprentice \u2013 and to humanity \u2013 is clear: never summon powers you cannot control.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nForget Hollywood depictions of gun-toting robots running wild in the streets \u2013 the reality of artificial intelligence is far more dangerous, warns the historian and author in an exclusive extract from his new book
\nThroughout history many traditions have believed that some fatal flaw in human nature tempts us to pursue powers we don\u2019t know how to handle. The Greek myth of Phaethon told of a boy who discovers that he is the son of Helios, the sun god. Wishing to prove his divine origin, Phaethon demands the privilege of driving the chariot of the sun. Helios warns Phaethon that no human can control the celestial horses that pull the solar chariot. But Phaethon insists, until the sun god relents. After rising proudly in the sky, Phaethon indeed loses control of the chariot. The\u00a0sun veers off course, scorching all vegetation, killing numerous beings and threatening to burn the Earth itself. Zeus intervenes and strikes Phaethon with a thunderbolt. The conceited human drops from the sky like a falling star, himself on fire. The gods reassert control of the sky and save the world.
\nTwo thousand years later, when the Industrial Revolution was making its first steps and machines began replacing humans in numerous tasks, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published a similar cautionary tale titled The Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice. Goethe\u2019s poem (later popularised as a Walt Disney animation starring Mickey Mouse) tells of an old sorcerer who leaves a young apprentice in charge of his workshop and gives him some chores to tend to while he is gone, such as\u00a0fetching water from the river. The apprentice decides to make things easier for himself and, using one of the\u00a0sorcerer\u2019s spells, enchants a broom to fetch the water for him. But the apprentice doesn\u2019t know how to stop the broom, which relentlessly fetches more and more water, threatening to flood the workshop. In panic, the apprentice cuts the enchanted broom in two with an axe, only to see each half become another broom. Now two enchanted brooms are inundating the workshop with water. When the old sorcerer returns, the apprentice pleads for help: \u201cThe spirits that I summoned, I now cannot rid myself of again.\u201d The sorcerer immediately breaks the spell and stops the flood. The lesson to the apprentice \u2013 and to humanity \u2013 is clear: never summon powers you cannot control. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forget Hollywood depictions of gun-toting robots running wild in the streets \u2013 the reality of artificial intelligence is far more dangerous, warns the historian and author in an exclusive extract from his new book Throughout history many traditions have believed that some fatal flaw in human nature tempts us to pursue powers we don\u2019t know …<\/p>\n

\u2018Never summon a power you can\u2019t control\u2019: Yuval Noah Harari on how AI could threaten democracy and divide the world<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}