Human beings are "the cows of the future," according to Israeli historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari, who used the unusual comparison to explain his concerns about the future of humanity under artificial intelligence.
In an interview with Czech public television, Harari compared humanity's potential future relationship with AI to the way cows live under human control, affected by agricultural and financial systems they cannot possibly understand. "Cows know that humans exist. They can see us," he explained. "I can sell you a cow and you transfer money to my bank account. This is invisible to the cow."
Yuval Noah Harari
(Photo: Dana Kopel)
"How do you explain the bond market to cows even though it controls their lives?" he asked.
According to Harari, just as cows are affected by stock and bond markets without understanding money or the economic structures shaping their lives, humans could increasingly find themselves dependent on AI systems whose decisions and underlying logic are beyond their intellectual comprehension. "We are the cows of the future," he concluded.
The comparison illustrates why Harari believes the danger posed by AI does not necessarily involve robots or machines physically attacking or killing humans. Instead, he warned, the technology could gradually gain control over critical systems, particularly finance and bureaucracy, reducing humanity's ability to understand or influence decisions that shape society.
"The AIs are taking over the financial system," Harari said. "They are taking over all the bureaucracies because they are bureaucratic natives."
He explained that AI has a unique advantage in administrative and financial environments because it can process and remember enormous amounts of information. Bureaucracy, he argued, is a relatively recent human invention and does not come naturally to people.
"We were born in the forest, not in the office," he said. "For AIs, bureaucracy is home. They were born in the office. They are bureaucratic natives."
Harari pointed to banking as an example of the fundamental difference between human and artificial intelligence. "No human banker can remember all the transactions of the bank. An AI banker can," he said.
These capabilities, he argued, could allow AI to develop increasingly sophisticated financial and legal systems. Although such systems might function effectively, their complexity could make them difficult for ordinary people and experts alike to understand.
According to Harari, that imbalance could create a future in which humans remain part of the systems governing their lives but have little meaningful control over how those systems operate.
"So just as cows can't understand the financial system that controls their lives today, we will not be able to understand the AI financial system that will control our lives in 10 or 20 years," he warned. "Which means that we are the cows of the future. We are the cows of the future."