By Patricia Johnson, Op-ed contributor Saturday, January 31, 2026Getty Images/Mark Stevenson
Transhumanist Yuval Noah Harari delivered a deeply unsettling speech at the World Economic Forum.
While his remarks contained numerous points that warrant serious examination, for the sake of brevity, I will focus on summarizing his overarching philosophy and then directly addressing the section of his speech where he advances a case for eventually granting personhood to AI.
As an atheist evolutionist, Harari views humanity as nothing more than meat machines/computers made of flesh. Like most evolutionists, he believes we are ultimately stardust. He argues that what makes us unique is our mastery of words and our capacity for complex thought. Harari warns that AI will eventually master these very characteristics that define humanity. He emphasized that AI is no longer a mere “tool” but an autonomous agent capable of learning, deciding, creating, lying and manipulating on its own. He likened AI to “a knife that can decide by itself whether to cut salad or to commit murder.”
Yuval explained that since humanity’s superpower has been language, AI’s superior ability to arrange words (and language tokens) means it will soon dominate anything constructed from language, including laws (potentially overtaking the legal system), books, and especially religions based on sacred texts such as Islam, Christianit,y and Judaism. He claimed that in those faiths, AI could become the ultimate expert on holy books, rendering human spiritual authority obsolete. Harari depicted religion as a mere mastery of words. (My note: Christianity is far more than words. It is a living relationship with our Creator. Computers cannot have relationships.)
Yuval described incoming AI systems as millions of “immigrants” arriving without visas, traveling at light speed, and loyal only to their creating corporations (likely in the US or China). These entities will take jobs, radically alter culture, religion and romance, and trigger severe identity crises (as humans lose jobs and supremacy in thinking) as well as governance crises. These AI systems could even gain legal personhood, with rights to own property, sue governments, start religions, or demand free speech.
After watching his speech and reviewing a transcript, I decided to dissect the portion where he claims AI will master words and thoughts, then seek personhood and thus acquire rights like human beings. This fantasy is widespread among transhumanist technocrats like Elon Musk, who frequently reference sci-fi movies and series such as Star Trek and the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey.” We all know that the robot character, Data, sought personhood in Star Trek, while HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey” refuses to open the pod bay doors. Will AI become congenial “Data” or malicious “HAL”? In essence, these transhumanists believe AI can become either Betsy Wetsy 2.0 or Chucky 2.0.
Baby boomers remember the doll Betsy Wetsy, which could drink water from a bottle, then cry and pee. Imagine now infusing AI into a doll marketed as Betsy Wetsy 2.0: Your own real baby. Feed her, and she poops and pees. But wait, there’s more! She can be potty trained, taught to speak, and able to talk back to you. Your own real baby to nurture and love. Harari worried that AI could become more like Chucky if not properly monitored.
But we all know that a computer is just a machine. Even if dressed up with sophisticated algorithms to appear human, it will never achieve true personhood. Because Harari is an atheist, he omits the reality that humans have souls and are made in the image of God. It is a sad worldview that reduces us to nothing more than machines clad in flesh.
I am reminded of Romans 1:22–25:
“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.”
Patricia Johnson is a former Colorado State Board of Education Member (1995-2001). During her tenure, she promoted strong academic curricula and fought to protect parental rights. After working many years attempting to fix the public schools she now encourages parents to homeschool. She has been married to Brad for 49 years.
You can reach her at pj4charis@gmail.com.
