Do you know that Steve Jobs predicted ChatGPT way back in 1985, at a dinner?

A few decades back, imagining that there could be a tool that could think like a human and even answer questions like a human, sounded impossible right? After all, how can a machine understand human emotions and talk to us like a friend? And now here we are, with AI tools like ChatGPT ruling our world, making everything from writing, to getting information, to even making presentations easier? However, did you know that the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had predicted ChatGPT more than 40 years back, at a dinner? Here's that fascinating story....

Going back in time
A digital exhibit from the Steve Jobs Archive features footage of a talk Jobs gave at the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen. During this talk, Jobs discussed the potential of a technology that could answer questions and think like a human.

According to Business Insider, Jobs compared this technology to a book, describing it as a "phenomenal thing" that could transmit information directly from the source to the destination without intermediaries. However, Jobs noted the lack of interaction as a limitation and envisioned a future where machines could embody an underlying spirit or set of guiding principles.

In the speech, Steve said, “I think as we look towards the next 50 to 100 years, if we really can come up with these machines that can capture an underlying spirit, or an underlying set of principles, or an underlying way of looking at the world, then when the next Aristotle comes around, maybe if he carries around one of these machines with him his whole life, his or her whole life, and types in all this stuff, then maybe someday after the person is dead and gone, we can ask this machine, ‘Hey, what would Aristotle have said? What about this."

There is no doubt that Steve was a visionary, and his prediction has come true in less than 50 years! The emergence of AI, chat bots and others, have completely transformed our lives for the better. On the other hand, there is much debate around the fact that AI tools will soon replace human jobs, but the same lacks logical arguments, and hence a lot remains to be seen. On the other hand, the overdependence on AI too, is a cause for concern, hence one must tread with caution.