Yuval Noah Harari: “We Are on the Verge of Destroying Ourselves” | Amanpour and Company

In Yuval Noah Harari's new book "Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI," the bestselling author and historian looks at the unique challenges that artificial intelligence represents for our time. Harari joins the show.

Originally aired on September 16, 2024

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Major support for Amanpour and Company is provided by Jim Attwood and Leslie Williams, Candace King Weir, the Sylvia A. and Simon B. Poyta Programming Endowment to Fight Antisemitism, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Charitable Trust, Mark J. Blechner, the Filomen M. D’Agostino Foundation, Seton J. Melvin, the Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, Charles Rosenblum, Koo and Patricia Yuen, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg, and Jeffrey Katz and Beth Rogers.

Watch Amanpour and Company weekdays on PBS (check local listings).

Amanpour and Company features wide-ranging, in-depth conversations with global thought leaders and cultural influencers on the issues and trends impacting the world each day, from politics, business and technology to arts, science and sports. Christiane Amanpour leads the conversation on global and domestic news from London with contributions by prominent journalists Walter Isaacson, Michel Martin, Alicia Menendez and Hari Sreenivasan from the Tisch WNET Studios at Lincoln Center in New York City.

#amanpourpbs

[uprightmovement]

“The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology.” - E.O. Wilson

[dijidal]

Stop using social media altogether- it only alienates people. Go to coffee shops, bars, libraries, take classes at school. Get out in the fresh air, go on a hike, go to a lake/beach. Look for community events to attend. Draw, write, paint, play music, take photos/videos and make movies with them. The list goes on and on… Now I’m gonna get back to my 5 hour social media binge catch y’all later!!!

[melindagrandstaff]

Thank you to the interviewer for such good questions and for letting him talk without interrupting.

[inthehouse]

Wow...his description of how media manipulates the nervous system is what I've been saying for years. We are breaking down from cortisol overload and suffering from chronic stress disorders. Especially our children and teens. Advertising has always used the sympathetic nervous system to increase sales and now content IS advertising... everyone is competing for eyes on the screen, 24-7, by playing with our fight or flight response. I call it cortisol farming. And we're tapped out.

[tammiepulley]

We MUST have campaign finance reform. We must stop corporate executives from buying (contributions) to government officials. This deeply compromises our government from making the big decisions needed to protect citizens from the negative side of AI.

[gunkwretch]

we do not lack intellect, we lack humility, compassion, virtue... when Greed controls AI for personal profit, there is no way it will turn out well for life on this planet

[silvajmg]

Thanks Amanpour&Co and Mr. Harari.
So relevant, so true.

[subbiana]

Sir Greetings to Yuval Noah Harari I listened to you in the New York interview.This is a great alarming situation to humanity.Thank you Professor
A.Subbian Formerly Emeritus Professor Annamalai University Tamil Nadu India From Thanjavur

[kontrygrllamerika]

Back in the 1970s the television signals went off the air by midnight and you had no choice but to rest from that constant technology input. You had to rest even if you wanted to see more TV shows and news. This allowed people to rest and sleep easily as there was no distractions. Now in 2024 I find it hard to shut off my devices and rest because my brain thinks it is missing out on possibly important information, no matter how I want to rest my brain is addicted to tech. This has disrupted my entire day and body rhythms so much I am contemplating getting rid of it all.

[sbeckwit]

"Corporations should be liable for the consequences of their algorithms." That right there should be codified in federal, stat4e, local and international law.

[pauldandrea]

Yuval Harari thank you so much for making me worry even more about where this world is taking me.

[AdekunleLawal]

The commandment is simple love your neighbor as you love yourself. If we really had love for one another we wouldn’t be in this existential crisis.

[buddyneher]

"If you give good people bad information, they make bad decisions." And it's so very easy to lose the ability to identify bad information.

[Mark-gguj]

GREED is humanity's worst problem - all evil derives from such!!!

[Sappho]

Mr. Harari is completely right. Finally, somebody who is saying something new, interesting, correct, and very important.

[domb]

"I can’t think anyone really believes that today’s so-called ‘information society’ is just about information. Everyone knows it’s about something else, way down."

- David Foster Wallace

[c.a.savage]

"America is the only country to have gone from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." - Oscar Wilde.

[SasquatchLovesMe]

This is an excellent discussion/interview. I agree with Mr Harari 100%.

[inthehouse]

The ironic tagline "We are on the verge of destroying ourselves" is a perfect example of cortisol farming." I would have watched this even if the tagline was "technological determinism can lead to human progress."

[williamupdike]

He does stick to the simple, but truthful perspective on issues of this time. And for those in the US, I would highly recommend his books due to this reality. I find that reading or listening to Harari helps to reestablish a baseline to reality, and an important break from the nonsense that is almost everywhere. Thanks for posting.