Yuval Noah Harari says AI will spark identity and immigration crises

Businessinsider reports that Yuval Noah Harari told the World Economic Forum in Davos that artificial intelligence is about to create two crises for every country: an identity crisis and an immigration crisis. Harari said the identity crisis stems from how much value humans place on our ability to think, and that AI will potentially outperform us on that task.

He compared AIs to immigrants who will bring benefits, such as medical and teaching skills, alongside disruption, saying, "Those who are concerned about human immigrants usually argue that immigrants might take jobs, might change the local culture, might be politically disloyal. I'm not sure that's true of all human immigrants, but it will definitely be true of the AI immigrants." He asked whether societies will allow AIs to be recognised as "legal persons" with rights to start businesses, form religions, or befriend children on social media.

Harari, a distinguished research fellow at the University of Cambridge's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the author of Sapiens and of Homo Deus, published in 2015.

Key Topics

Tech, Yuval Noah Harari, World Economic Forum, Ai Immigrants, Legal Personhood, Nvidia