Why would anyone trust Harari's opnion? He's basically a pop-sci author presenting classical cyberpunk ideas and themes as imminent future technologies (in the future we will have chips in people's brain / AI will control the world etc.).<p>There is absolutely no substance and he's no different from a tech bro saying plane tickets will be NFTs in the near future.
This is so tired. The problem with AIs are that they'll be used to make life worse for people right now.<p>The US government is using machine translation to assess asylum cases because they don't want to pay for translators. People will literally be denied asylum and die because of this. That's a real AI problem, and it's affecting people right now.<p>The world would be better off without pundits like this guy distracting us from the real problems.
(have not yet rtfa)
So... Good? Maybe?<p>A proper religion consists of personal rules that, optimally, promote a stable and growing society. Coupled with the necessary doctrine and evangelism needed to propagate the Theogenetic package of this god or that. Sprinkle in some persecution of heretics or the religion will just mutate out of control.<p>If L.Ron Hubbard can pull a functioning and viable god out of his anointed hindquarters then we should at least give the LLMs a shot.
Of course the headline is silly, because AI systems lack any awareness or intention, but "the first religion that attracts devotees with sacred texts created by artificial intelligence" came out last month - it's called "Harmonism":<p><a href="https://hughhowey.com/harmonism/" rel="nofollow">https://hughhowey.com/harmonism/</a>
I think it's worth taking concerns like this seriously.<p>Not so much in the "Evil AGI develops a scheme for human control via religion" sense, but the formation of cults with AI as the primary source of dogma seems absolutely plausible and even likely.<p>Imagine how much faster ideas like QAnon could spread if the materials were all easily accessible via conversation, with an easy entry point for all newcomers, because no matter your level, the LLM will meet you where you are.<p>I've known types that would absolutely buy into some "This AI is the second coming of deity" story, and they'd love it because they could engage with said deity directly, something they've spent their entire lives hoping to accomplish via prayer.<p>I think this should be read as "AI in the hands of humans could create..."