Yuval Harari’s has an incredible insight during his talk at the World Economic Forum – His vision is that in the future, with the increase development of AI, our societies might be at risk for the rise of digital dictatorships.
He talks about the intrinsic difference between democracies and dictatorships, from the perspective of making decisions, and processing information – making a direct connection with the way that digital systems are designed.
In that sense, he compares distributed systems with centralized systems, a concept that is used all the time within computing and Internet-related systems.
This kind of perspective and insight reminded me of another interesting video by Hank Green (Vlog Brothers), in which he talks about the idea of corporate autocracies dominating digital spaces and communities.
Another thinker that has been considering this massive shift in our societies is Amy Webb. Her book, “The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp Humanity” (https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/amy-webb/the-big-nine/9781541773752/) brings a great deal of knowledge and observations for us to digest on some of these ideas moving forward. Webb’s research in this book is primarily focused on the immense role and influence that big tech companies already have in our present, and will continue to have in our future.
She was interviewed recently by Leo Laporte (TWiT) on the show Triangulation. The full interview can be watched below.
These early perspectives into the impact of AI in our societies are quite fascinating and will continue to shape the public discourse for many years. It seems imperative to continue these conversations in the future.