Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, in a 1985 talk, which he delivered in Sweden, made a surprising personal confession. The tech titan who was ahead of his times said that he was jealous of Alexander the Great. The reason, he explained, was not about power or conquest, but mentorship. Alexander had Aristotle, the legendary philosopher, as a personal tutor for over a decade.
“I read this, and I became immensely jealous,” Jobs admitted. While he could read Aristotle’s works, what he truly longed for was interaction — the chance to ask the philosopher questions directly and receive answers.
Steve Jobs: ‘I Would Have Enjoyed That a Great Deal’
In a clip from the talk, which has recently resurfaced on social media, Jobs reflects on this envy with both humor and insight. “I think I would have enjoyed that a great deal,” he said. Still, “through the miracle of the printed page, I can at least read what Aristotle wrote without an intermediary.”
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But that wasn’t enough. Jobs pointed out the critical limitation – reading a philosopher’s words was passive – it lacked the dynamic element of conversation.
“You can’t ask Aristotle a question and get an answer,” he said.
When Steve Jobs could predict Generative AI few decades forward ! #GodLevel pic.twitter.com/5kUNn18R5L
— Vijay Shekhar Sharma (@vijayshekhar) September 16, 2023
Steve Jobs Hoped For An AI Tool That Can…
Jobs then shared a vision that, in hindsight, feels remarkably prescient. “My hope is that, in our lifetimes,” he said, “we can make a tool of a new kind, an interactive client… When the next Aristotle is alive, we can capture the underlying worldview of that Aristotle in a computer. And someday a student will be able to not only read the words Aristotle wrote but ask Aristotle a question. And get an answer.”
That vision of a digital thinker capable of engaging in dialogue closely mirrors what today’s artificial intelligence tools are doing.
Jobs for years battled pancreatic cancer and finally died in 2011 more than a decade before OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022.
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Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
