"When 'Prometheus' makes the first really impressive robotic AI, there will be a question: do we give it 'fire'? Do we give it consciousness? Shall we be 'Zeus' and deny it fire because we're afraid of it, because it will destroy us?" - Stephen Fry

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And the fire, I think, means both literal fire, to allow us to become bronze age man, to create weapons and to cook meat, but also the internal fire of self-consciousness and creativity, the divine fire.

And Prometheus stole fire from heaven, gave it to man, and Zeus was so angry that he punished Prometheus by chaining him to a mountainside.

And the other punishment was that Zeus and the other gods created Pandora, the all-gifted, that is what Pandora, all-gifted, and sent her down as the first woman.

She had everything, but he also gave her this jar.

She was told that she shouldn't look into the jar, but she had this curiosity and she opened the jar, and I'm sure you all know the story, out flew hardship, lies, deceit, murder, pestilence, all the ills of the world, and the golden age was over.

She slammed the lid back on, and 1 little fairy was left inside.

Now, I'm going to put that to 1 side and I'm going to go back to 1989 when I became fascinated by this extraordinary new development in which you could network computers to a network of networks, which was starting to be called the Internet.

I thought this is the biggest and most exciting bringing together of human beings in the history of our planet.

It will give us freedom of access to knowledge.

When social media came and the Arab Spring And I thought there would be no more tribalism, no more hatred, no more racism.

The lid opened and out came trolls, out came abusers, out came racists and tribalists and insulters and the worst kind of humanity.

And I thought that was so interesting that the Greeks had this understanding that when we have something that seems perfect, there is no possibility but that it also contains its opposite.

I guarantee you, whether you like to think it or not, that although we know through Darwin and science and genes that we were not created by an intelligent designer, in a hundred years time, we can guarantee there will be sapient creatures, sapient beings on this earth that have been intelligently designed.

You can call them robots, you can call them compounds of augmented biology and artificial intelligence, but they will exist.

My question is this, when the Prometheus who makes the first really impressive piece of robotic AI, like Frankenstein, but like Prometheus back in the Greek myth, they will have a question.

Do we give these creatures self-knowledge, self-consciousness, an autonomy that is greater than any other machine has ever had and will be similar to ours.

In other words, shall we be Zeus and deny them fire because we are afraid of them, because they will destroy us?

And the Greeks and the human beings did destroy the gods.

And it is very possible we will create a race of sapient beings who will not need us.


Speaker 0: Zeus refused to allow us to have fire. And the fire, I think, means both literal fire, to allow us to become bronze age man, to create weapons and to cook meat, but also the internal fire of self-consciousness and creativity, the divine fire. And Zeus didn't want us to have it. And Prometheus stole fire from heaven, gave it to man, and Zeus was so angry that he punished Prometheus by chaining him to a mountainside. And the other punishment was that Zeus and the other gods created Pandora, the all-gifted, that is what Pandora, all-gifted, and sent her down as the first woman.

She had everything, but he also gave her this jar. She was told that she shouldn't look into the jar, but she had this curiosity and she opened the jar, and I'm sure you all know the story, out flew hardship, lies, deceit, murder, pestilence, all the ills of the world, and the golden age was over. She slammed the lid back on, and 1 little fairy was left inside. Elpis Hope. Now, I'm going to put that to 1 side and I'm going to go back to 1989 when I became fascinated by this extraordinary new development in which you could network computers to a network of networks, which was starting to be called the Internet.

I thought this is the biggest and most exciting bringing together of human beings in the history of our planet. It is the all gifted. It will give us freedom of access to knowledge. We will share things, art, politics. Boundaries will be dissolved.

When social media came and the Arab Spring And I thought there would be no more tribalism, no more hatred, no more racism. This would be wonderful. But what happened? The lid opened and out came trolls, out came abusers, out came racists and tribalists and insulters and the worst kind of humanity. It was an exact replay of Pandora's box.

And I thought that was so interesting that the Greeks had this understanding that when we have something that seems perfect, there is no possibility but that it also contains its opposite. I guarantee you, whether you like to think it or not, that although we know through Darwin and science and genes that we were not created by an intelligent designer, in a hundred years time, we can guarantee there will be sapient creatures, sapient beings on this earth that have been intelligently designed. You can call them robots, you can call them compounds of augmented biology and artificial intelligence, but they will exist. My question is this, when the Prometheus who makes the first really impressive piece of robotic AI, like Frankenstein, but like Prometheus back in the Greek myth, they will have a question. Do we give it fire?

Do we give these creatures self-knowledge, self-consciousness, an autonomy that is greater than any other machine has ever had and will be similar to ours. In other words, shall we be Zeus and deny them fire because we are afraid of them, because they will destroy us? And the Greeks and the human beings did destroy the gods. They no longer needed them. And it is very possible we will create a race of sapient beings who will not need us.

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Stephen Fry: Do we give AI fire?