In a fascinating video from four decades ago, Steve Jobs appeared to predict the future of AI chatbot technology and it is mind blowing.
The late Apple founder can be seen in the clip giving a speech at Lunds University in Sweden back in 1985 and many have been surprised to see the tech mogul seemingly predict ChatGPT as he was talking.
During the talk, Jobs talks about the idea of a futuristic system that sounds a lot like how ChatGPT works now.
During his speech, he said: “Do you know who Alexander the Great’s tutor was for about 14 years? It was Aristotle. When I read that, I became immensely jealous - I think I would’ve enjoyed that a great deal. But through the miracle of the printed page, I can at least read what Aristotle wrote without an intermediary. Maybe a professor can add to it, but I can still go directly to the source.
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“That’s the foundation of our Western civilization. The problem is, I can’t ask Aristotle a question - I mean, I can, but I won’t get an answer. My hope is that in our lifetimes, we can create a new kind of tool, an interactive one. So that when the next Aristotle is alive, we can capture their worldview in a computer. And someday, a student will not only be able to read what Aristotle wrote, but also ask him a question - and get an answer. That’s what I hope we can do.
“In a sense, this is exactly what ChatGPT does. It can gather knowledge, and by combining several sources, you can get insights that wouldn’t be possible on your own. While there are ongoing debates about where OpenAI trained its models, you can kind of ask Aristotle questions right now.”
Many people have taken to social media to share their own reactions to the resurfaced video, with one person writing in the YouTube comment section: “When he talks AI at that time, people laughed at him.”
Another said: “He visualised and verbalised the greatest technology of the 21st century in the 20th century in an accurate way.he is a visionary.”
A third user commented: “Steve Jobs was incredibly accurate. But ChatGPT is the capturing of a segment of the entire world's view [the internet] - not just a single person.”
And a fourth replied: “Just start the prompt By ‘You’re Aristote .. question’, you get chatgpt’s perception of Aristotle worldview in the answers.”