On 6 December, Yuval Noah Harari will be among several guest speakers to address the EBU AI Summit, which gathers public service media leaders who are navigating the choppy, uncharted waters of artificial intelligence.

Renowned for epochal works Sapiens, Homo Deus, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century and, in 2024, Nexus, Harari is one of the world's most bankable nonfiction writers today. He's also a forceful voice of conscience about the transformative effects of technology on society.

As someone who's profoundly uneasy about AI's potential harms in the information space and wider society, his presence at the AI Summit is exceedingly apposite.

As the hype cycle around AI was peaking, Harari was raising the alarm about AI’s power to amplify misinformation, erode public trust, and polarize societies through weaponized content. For public service broadcasters—whose stock in trade is upholding trust and providing reliable information—this encounter with him could not be timelier.
 
Public service media are islands of journalistic integrity, prizing accuracy and depth over impact. But engagement-hungry algorithms are raising the temperature, causing the sea of misinformation to rise and those islands to shrink.
 
These issues are bound to shape Harari’s conversation with AI Summit host and BBC Technology Editor, Zoe Kleinman. How can public broadcasters harness AI to enhance their offer without compromising their core values? What safeguards can ensure AI technologies remain tools for enlightenment, not manipulation? And how can public service media counter the phenomenon of AI-driven misinformation?
 
More than once, Harari has said the battle for trust in the digital age is not just about countering falsehoods—it’s about building good institutions and systems that prioritise the public good over profit. For PSM, this means doubling down on the commitment to quality journalism and finding innovative and responsible ways to use AI to serve audiences better.
 
The EBU AI Summit unites PSM leaders from across Europe to discuss the future of their industry in the light of AI’s promises and threats. Harari’s signature message about facts and objective truth may sound a clarion call for public service media to meet the challenge of ensuring AI strengthens, and never subverts, their mission.
 
Information integrity has never been more fragile or more urgent, and it’s up to PSM to do everything possible to remain a beacon of reliability in an unreliable world.