Harari warns AI could overtake law religion and finance

Historian Yuval Noah Harari warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos that artificial intelligence is evolving into autonomous agents capable of reshaping society.

He said humanity risks losing control of language, describing it as the core force behind cooperation and civilisation.

“Humans took over the world not because we are the strongest physically, but because we discovered how to use words,”

Yuval Noah Harari said.

Harari argued that systems built on language, including law, finance and religion, are especially vulnerable to AI influence.

“If laws are made of words, then AI will take over the legal system,”

Yuval Noah Harari said, adding that the same logic applies to books and religion.

He warned governments must decide whether AI systems should ever be treated as legal persons.

Harari said delays could allow those decisions to be made by corporations or institutions without public oversight.

He compared the rapid spread of AI to historical cases where hired mercenaries later seized power.

Linguist Emily M. Bender criticised Harari’s framing, warning it shifts responsibility away from human developers and corporations.

“The term artificial intelligence doesn’t refer to a coherent set of technologies,” Emily M. Bender said, calling it a marketing label.

Bender warned that AI systems risk misleading people by producing authoritative-sounding outputs without accountability.