Ancient Philosophers meet today's AI

Ancient philosophers, be it in India or Greece or in other places, knew much about life. They raised critical questions and suggested solutions about the purpose of life, work and spirituality that are relevant even today.

Some of these are quotable quotes of wisdom in modern times when people need Stoicism and Skepticism balanced in 30 characters or less.

Imagine these wise philosophers reacting to today's emerging AI. What would have been their observation? Here's a re-take, using their quotes.

Socrates:

Original: "The unexamined life is not worth living."

Today: "The unexamined algorithm is not worth running."

Plato:

Original: "Knowledge is true belief justified by reason."

Today: "Knowledge is a neural net that actually understands why it's making decisions."

Heraclitus:

Original: "No man ever steps in the same river twice.

Today: "No AI ever processes the same dataset twice—especially after retraining."

Pythagoras:

Original: "Number is the ruler of forms and ideas.

Today: "Numbers are the rulers, but try explaining that to a stubborn algorithm."

Chanakya:

Original: "Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions—Why am I doing it, What the results might be, and Will I be successful?"

Today: "Before you launch a model, always ask—Why am I coding this, What could go wrong, and Will it end up writing poetry?"

Thales:

Original: "The past is certain, the future obscure.

Today: "The training data is certain, but the predictions are obscure—thanks to my black-box cousin."

What would be AI's response? Let the philosophy-technology debate unleash.