New Delhi4 minutes agoAuthor: Romesh Sahu
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Yuval Noah Harari is one of the world’s foremost experts on AI. Harari, a professor and historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, spoke exclusively to Dainik Bhaskar’s Romesh Sahu on how fast the world is changing due to AI. Read the highlights of the conversation…
1. You call AI ‘alien intelligence’?
Artificial Intelligence is the literal meaning of AI. But I call it alien intelligence. Because artificial means something which we create and which we can control. But the beauty of AI is that it can learn on its own and make continuous changes. AI’s algorithms are developing on their own. Now even the engineers who create AI are not able to tell on what basis it is taking decisions. Through AI we are actually creating another species, like people from another planet!
2. AI is in its early stages, how advanced is its future going to be?
We’re excited to see ChatGPT or other AI tools. But this is just the beginning. Metaphorically, we can say that in terms of AI we are amoeba right now, dinosaurs are yet to come. The process of coming from amoeba to dinosaur and then to human took billions of years. But the rocket speed with which AI is developing will take only a few decades for it to become a dinosaur. No one knows what power AI is going to reveal in the coming 20 years.
3. Can AI also lie?
Yes, this is one of its biggest dangers. When OpenAI launched GPT-4, to test it, they asked it to solve a CAPTCHA puzzle. GPT was not able to do this. The researchers gave it access to a web page called TaskRabbit. GPT handed over the job to a person by lying that he was blind. The engineers who created the algorithm were also surprised as to how it learned to lie automatically.
The Hindi version of Harari’s new book ‘Nexus’ is being published by Manjul Prakashan.
4. How much will this change things?
AI also has many benefits. But there are fears that humans could use AI for bad intentions. Because it is powerful technology. This may increase inequality in the world. Whichever countries have expertise in AI, they will rule the world. In the current situation, only two countries are ahead in the race of AI, America and China. Both of them will have excessive military power. Perhaps in the coming 5 years, AI may make the entire world’s conventional military completely obsolete! Tomorrow, when there will be fully autonomous weapons, the existing war planes, ships and tanks will become junk.
5. There is always a fear that AI will eliminate jobs?
Yes, many types of jobs will be destroyed by AI. Who knows, tomorrow AI may write a better book than me. GPT is writing better answers than most of the researchers in my university. Although there will be jobs despite AI, you will have to constantly change and train yourself for the jobs. This will be the biggest challenge for humans, because learning a new profession every two-three years is a very difficult task for us humans. In this case there is competition with your machine and this will cause tension.
6. How are smartphones and social media affecting humans?
– I rarely use mobile phone. One reason for this is privacy because we are constantly being monitored through AI. The second reason is that mobile is influencing our decisions. Algorithms are learning our weaknesses, how to grab our attention, how to sell things to us. People who keep scrolling with mobile phones in their hands all day long, their mind is not under their control. I don’t let anyone intrude into my mind, I read books instead of scrolling social media all the time.
7. How do you stay away from it?
– Like eating too much, especially junk food is not good for health. Similarly, a lot of information is not good for the brain and we are taking this junk information from social media. More information does not mean more knowledge. It takes time to digest food, similarly give time to your brain to digest information. I take time to digest information. I do a long information fast when it comes to information. So that I can detox my mind from all the junk information. As I have just received a lot of information at once, now I will fast on it. For this I will go for Vipassana meditation in Mumbai. I also meditate for 2 hours every day.
8. You are from Israel, what can be the solution to the ongoing war with Hamas?
The problem in the Israel-Palestine issue is that both countries are completely denying each other’s existence. There will be peace only when both types of governments accept that the other side also has the right to live and exist. When we accept these two truths, the problem of Israel and Palestine will solve itself.
9. The solution will come only by trusting humans…
More than developing AI, we need to invest more in trusting each other as humans. AI cannot maintain peace among us humans. We are investing a lot on AI but not investing anything in developing our own mind and peace. Talk to leaders of big companies, they are very busy creating technology. But they do not have time to develop their mind and brain for brotherhood, love etc.
