The Wrong Question About AI

How two ancient Greek tales point us to a better question.

I’m not anybody’s definition of a computer geek. Don’t get me wrong: I like computers well enough, and I have my nerdish qualities. But those latter have more to do with the most durable, successful technology in history – the codex, or, what we know as “books” – rather than what dominates today’s news: AI, artificial intelligence.

My Twitter feed lately has been a deluge of the latest, breathless advances in new technologies. Yet as I’ve scrolled past a gazillion claims to use AI NOW to 10x my competitiveness in 357 ways, I keep thinking about a pair of very old stories. And those stories remind me that, despite the hype and apocalyptic rhetoric around whether AI may one day – very soon, or decades on? – destroy us all, we’re asking the wrong question entirely.

The question is not, “Will AI destroy us?”

The question is, and always has been, “Will we destroy ourselves?”

The ancient Greeks understood this. Whether told by Hesiod, or retold by Aeschylus, the story of Prometheus, the titan who famously stole fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to humanity, resonates across the centuries. That fire was techne: technology, civilization, forethought, ambition to reach the heavens. Zeus, king of Olympus, tortures Prometheus for his betrayal, and then concocts a plot to punish humanity for this audacious overreach.

That plot, on the heels of Prometheus’ daring theft, comes in the story of Pandora, whose name in Greek is the ironic “all-gift.”

Pandora, the first woman, created by the gods and imbued with gifts from each, is sent to earth as a gift-bearer, the original Trojan horse. Although Prometheus warns his brothers not to accept anything from Zeus, they can’t help themselves. Pandora’s quite seductive, after all. But she comes bearing a jar full of plagues, which she promptly opens once she gains the trust of mere mortals, unleashing untold evil upon the earth forever.

The warning resounding from so many of AI’s leading voices echoes Prometheus’ warning to humanity. But there’s a twist here. Those leaders are both Prometheus and Pandora: asking humanity to save us from their own – our own – creation, full of promise and plague. I wonder if this isn’t their attempt to say, “Don’t blame us if this goes wrong!” AI can only “destroy” us if we abdicate our responsibility to ourselves. We are the “gods” here, unleashing Pandora’s plagues upon ourselves.

But that story doesn’t have to be our destiny. The beauty of these ancient tales, and the wisdom they contain, is they point us to ask better questions. Who do we want to be, as people, with this techne we’ve developed? Can we summon our better virtues to direct these currents of power and energy in ways that uplift and improve our situation?

I believe we can, if we stop worrying about what AI can do, and pay more attention to what we can do, and who we want to be in this time.