We came across this headline on the website USSA News:
The headline from 10 June claims that the WEF (World Economic Forum) has called for AI (artificial intelligence) to rewrite the Bible, and to ‘create religions that are actually correct’.
When we did a broader search across the internet and social media, we found that these claims had been reported on some Christian resource websites, and it had been discussed by users identifying to be Christian, on Twitter and on forums. It had also appeared in a Singapore-based Telegram channel with over 4,400 users.
Users across the platforms expressed concerns that the WEF was trying to create a unified “correct” religion, and that this represented an attempt to attack Christianity specifically.
Deus Ex Machina
The USSA news article refers to an interview with Yuval Noah Harari, who they describe as a ‘top official’ of the WEF and more specifically, a ‘senior advisor to the WEF’. This is untrue, as WEF has confirmed that Harari is not an employee but he had attended their events.
It must also be noted that USSA News has a history of promoting propaganda and conspiracy theories, with multiple failed fact checks. It also has a highly opaque ownership. As such, it has low credibility as a source of information.
Nevertheless, USSA News claims that ‘according to Harari, the power of AI can be harnessed and used to reshape spirituality into the WEF’s globalist vision of “equity” and inclusivism’.
Harari is then quoted making a comparison between the printing press and traditional media, and AI. ‘It had no ideas of its own about the Bible: Is it good? Is it bad? How to interpret this? How to interpret that?’, Harari is quoted saying of the printing press.
USSA news then suggests that Harari and ‘his allies at the WEF’ had a ‘solution’ to the ‘supposed problems’ created by the passivity of the printing press—the solution being autonomous AI.
‘AI can create new ideas; [it] can even write a new Bible’, Harari is quoted saying. ‘Throughout history, religions dreamt about having a book written by a superhuman intelligence, by a non-human entity’, he adds.
‘In a few years, there might be religions that are actually correct. Just think about a religion whose holy book is written by an AI. That could be a reality in a few years’, he concludes.
Harari’s statements come from an interview with the Portuguese-American journalist Pedro Pinto on It’s Not That Simple, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation focusing on politics, the economy and society. The live recording of the interview is available on Harari’s YouTube page.
Context Matters
The quotes by Harari appear to portray him as being in favour of utilising AI to create a new religion to rival the existing ones, but his statements are being widely misrepresented without context by USSA News and the other platforms.
A broader overview of Harari’s position reveals that he is not in favour of AI-generated religion. Instead, during his conversation with Pinto, he is warning of the ability of AI to disrupt society due to its capabilities, and is calling for greater regulation of the technology.
He points out that unlike other revolutionary technology like the printing press, AI is capable of making decisions autonomously, and can also create new ideas, which can be dangerous due to its ability to manipulate people and societies.
To illustrate his idea, Harari discusses the hypothetical scenario of an AI generating ideas that inspire the creation of a Bible or religion on its own.
When taken in the context of the entire conversation, it is clear that Harari is not calling for the creation of new religions or religious texts or suggesting that the AI-generated religions would be the true religions instead of the ones existing today.
He is rather warning that humans, who for generations have believed that religious texts are created by superhuman intelligence, could finally be ‘correct’ in their supposition if AI, as a superhuman intelligence, generates a religious text.
Harari’s opinions towards AI are most clearly captured in a later part of the conversation, where he discusses the role of governments in managing the risks from the emergence of AI.
Harari expects that governments ‘regulate the deployment of AI into society’ so that they can be checked for safety, akin to newly developed medicines or vehicles. He says that AI is ‘moving too fast’, and that while humans can adapt, governments should act quickly to prevent detrimental effects to our society.
It is therefore false that Harari or the WEF called for AI to rewrite the Bible or create a new religion.
Familiar Punching Bags
This episode is not the first time the WEF or Harari have been the subjects of disinformation campaigns. We have on several occasions previously debunked false claims relating to the WEF, including claims that it was encouraging the consumption of expired food, cancelling Christmas to fight climate change, and ordering governments to ration water into homes.
The WEF is an international organisation that promotes cooperation between private and public sector organisations to address urgent global issues, and it does not have any ability to implement policy directives for countries.
Harari, meanwhile, has been mischaracterised as promoting harmful policies as a member of the WEF leadership. A factcheck by the Irish news publication The Journal debunked the claim that Harari claimed technology would replace people.
Reuters similarly debunked a claim that Harari had said ‘the era of free will is over’ on behalf of the WEF and the United Nations (UN), as well as another claim that Harari, as a leader of the WEF, had proclaimed that ‘God is dead’ and that the WEF would turn humans into gods.
In each of these refuted claims, all of which emerged in the last year, comments by Harari in interviews were taken out of context.
Harari, currently a lecturer at the Department of History in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a historian and philosopher known for being the author of the bestselling of a series of books on human existence, including Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
