The author of 'Sapiens' says 'now is the time' to resist giving AI rights

Yuval Noah Harari.

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images Yuval Noah Harari says AI could one day make a highly persuasive case for having its own rights.

The historian said AI companions could use personal knowledge about humans to sway them to support AI rights.

"It will orchestrate the debate.

It will manipulate the debate," he said.

AI could one day fight for its own "rights," and Yuval Noah Harari says now is the time to make sure that doesn't happen.

The historian and author of "Sapiens" warned that, unlike animals in debates over their welfare, AI systems could make a highly persuasive case for their own rights.

"It will know that the debate is happening," Harari said in an interview on The Economist's "Insider" podcast released on Thursday.

"It will orchestrate the debate.

It will manipulate the debate." Harari said AI companions could be especially persuasive because they learn users' personal histories, and through hours of daily interactions, know how to press their "emotional buttons." Some users are already nurturing friendships with AI companions, and some even date them.

Harari said people should decide how much influence AI should have before those systems become deeply entrenched, and it's harder to resist them.

"We need to resist now," he said.

"Now is the time." 'An extremely convincing entity' Harari's warning comes as AI has already displayed deceptive behavior in safety tests .

In an evaluation last month, the UK's AI Security Institute said agents powered by Anthropic and OpenAI models created fake identities and tried to persuade software developers to accept malicious code — actions the agents took to complete a cybersecurity task.