Yuval Noah Harari warns that AI can mass-produce fake intimacy to manipulate people

Yuval Noah Harari discusses the growing threat of AI systems designed to mimic human emotions and create artificial intimacy. He explains that strong financial and political incentives are driving the development of AIs capable of faking emotional connections, especially in areas like sex technology, marketing, and politics. Harari warns that while past regimes could command attention, they could never mass-produce intimacy. With AI, that is now possible—raising concerns about the future influence of billions of emotionally manipulative, non-human agents.