AI not a tool, it’s an agent; little chance of global agreement under Trump: Yuval Noah Harari

Yuval Noah Harari, whose rise to the top echelons of global public intellectuals has been meteoric since the runaway success of his 2011 classic ‘Sapiens’, is a leading voice on the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI). The historian and wide-ranging scholar who has become a go-to source for the big questions of our times, whose new book ‘Nexus’ deals with the history of information networks, spoke to Indrajit Hazra and Sruthijith KK on the fading hope for global cooperation on the regulation of AI, the dangers of a Trump administration for the world, the rising importance of India and the influence of Indian knowledge systems and practices in his life. Edited excerpts: