We may well be living in an era defined by artificial intelligence — a reality that shows up most clearly in advertising. In a new Big Think video, Yuval Noah Harari notes that many products are labeled “AI” for marketing reasons, even when the connection is superficial.
Genuine Artificial Intelligence
Harari offers a practical test for genuine artificial intelligence: does the system learn and adapt on its own, producing choices and ideas we cannot predict? If it does, it qualifies as AI. Many everyday devices marketed with the AI label will not meet that bar, though plenty of systems you already encounter do.
The Impact of Media Revolution
Drawing on his work about humanity’s long-term trajectory, Harari contrasts the twentieth century’s media revolution with what is coming next. Radio, television and telegraphy helped enable both mass democracy and large-scale totalitarian control. Those technologies allowed governments to shape and influence societies in unprecedented ways.
Surveillance and Control
Even the Soviet Union’s vast bureaucracy and spying apparatus could not monitor everyone continuously. Harari warns that AI-driven system...