Aug 26, 2026 #yuvalnoahharari #elonmusk #ai
Yuval Noah Harari is a big-ideas guy. He’s known for writing best-selling books that tackle broad sweeps of history. Harari’s most popular book “Sapiens” has sold 25m copies worldwide. But the historian-cum-philosopher has now turned his attention to AI, which he says is the “biggest psychological and social experiment in human history”. Harari sat down with Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist’s editor-in-chief, to discuss why he believes AI will come to control civilisation—and what it might mean to be human in that world. #ai #artificialintelligence #yuvalnoahharari #elonmusk 00:00 - Introduction 00:51 - Is AI’s takeover inevitable? 08:01 - Could machines become more trusted than humans? 10:26 - Harari on AI intimacy 14:16 - Are today's models conscious and should they be granted rights? 37:29 - Harari’s theory of AI immigrants 39:49 - How could AI divide the world into empires? 44:30 - Will AI make America more authoritarian? 49:55 - Does society need an AI catastrophe to trigger action? 01:04:50 - Are humans wise enough to prevent an AI crisis? We are starting to publish select Insider interviews in full on YouTube, with a delay. Meanwhile, subscribers to The Economist can enjoy interviews and the rest of our Insider shows on our app or website as soon as they are released: https://www.economist.com/insider
