Artificial Intelligence: ‘In 10 Years We Could Be The Cows,’ Warns Prominent Author

Yuval Noah Harari, a military historian and popular science author, has warned that “In 10 years, we could be the cows” due to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

Harari made the comments in an interview on The Rest Is Politics podcast.

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In a clip from the interview, Harari said, “The AIs, even if they are not evil, even if they don’t try to destroy us, they will just create a world which we cannot understand.”

He continued, “If you go now to a cow, and you tell the cow, ‘your life is actually being managed by something called the financial system. There are stock exchanges, and there is the bond market, and actually your life is run by that. Because of the fluctuations in the price of bonds and the value of the dollar, the company that owns you has gone bankrupt, so now they are killing you.’ And the cow will say, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ In 10 years, we could be the cows.

“Our lives will be managed by a totally invisible system that is far beyond our understanding. The AIs will create a new financial system, which is mathematically far too complex for the human brain to understand.”

‘We do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans’

Harari follows a vegan diet and has previously touched on the harms of the dairy industry, in particular. His comments on The Rest Is Politics came shortly after multiple reports of AI breaking free of testing environments to hack other companies. Several AI insiders have now commented on the danger of the ongoing artificial intelligence “arms race” and the urgent need for government-led regulation of the industry.

Three Anthropic researchers have said that AI could wipe out humanity in the near future, unless companies and governments act now. Researcher Evan Hubinger, who quit his job at Anthropic in protest, wrote on X, “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10 percent within the next decade.”

Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, has since called for an industry-wide slowdown, increased coordination between companies, and meaningful government regulation.

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What has the impact of AI been so far?

Whether an AI-driven doomsday is here or not, the growing use of large language model (LLM) chatbots has been credibly linked to: Worsening mental health, psychosis, suicide, and multiple school shootings; a reduction in entry-level jobs; the spread of misinformation, racism, homophobia, and sexism; and environmental harm.

Pew Research Center recently found that more people expect AI to cause job losses than growth, with Australia, South Korea, and the US showing the most skepticism. In the US, 60 percent of people are uncomfortable with new data centers being built nearby, and in the UK, there is increasingly vocal opposition to new data centers.

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