Nexus | Yuval Noah Harari

In his latest offering, Nexus, Harari traces the development of human information - from the Stone Age and the canonization of religious texts to the bureaucratic revolutions and the looming threat of AI. Nexus challenges society's naïve assumption that “more information = more truth.” Instead, he suggests that information serves to connect - and often to create shared fictions - rather than to faithfully represent reality.

Harari takes us on a journey from the Stone Age to the rise of AI, weaving together powerful case studies - from Nazi propaganda and Stalinist bureaucracy to Facebook’s role in the Rohingya genocide and Iran’s use of facial recognition to police women’s dress.

This isn’t just dystopian. Harari also spots a sliver of hope and advocates for the introduction  of robust “self-correcting mechanisms” in data systems before it's too late. Harari warns us that AI represents a genuine “alien intelligence” that could be capable of autonomous decision-making and urges leaders and governments to bring in regulations, transparency, and slow, thoughtful integration.

Nexus is the sharpest, most timely Harari book yet. It doesn’t sugar-coat its message: information shapes power, and AI could produce mythologies more potent and more dangerous than any human ideology before it. If you do nothing else this year, read Nexus. It’s brilliant, unsettling, and utterly vital. Essential reading in our AI‑charged world.