The future of democracy faces significant threats from social media, algorithms, and AI technologies. One major concern is the collapse of the democratic conversation, which is supposed to be a human-centric dialogue. The increasing influence of algorithms and bots disrupts this interaction, as these technologies can dominate discussions with persuasive, but non-human, narratives. This dynamic obscures the distinction between human voices and artificial contributions, undermining the democratic process. This shift began approximately 15-20 years ago and continues to escalate, leading to confusion about the topics that truly matter to society, such as climate change or immigration.
Yuval Noah Harari published an essay in the New York Times the other day. “Large-scale democracies,” he wrote, “became feasible only after the rise of modern information technologies like the newspaper, the telegraph and the radio. The fact that modern democracy has been built on top of modern information technologies means that any major change in the underlying technology is likely to result in a political upheaval.” Well, we’re witnessing a major change in the underlying technology right now. Artificial intelligence is here, and if its proponents are to be believed, it will fundamentally transform how we consume information and communicate with each other. What this means for the future of democracy — and society as we know it — is the subject of Harari’s new book Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI.
Host: Rufus Griscom
Guest: Yuval Noah Harari
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