What Socrates Can Teach Us About AI

If Socrates was the wisest person in Ancient Greece, then large language models must be the most foolish systems in the modern world. In his Apology, Plato tells the story of how Socrates's friend Chaerephon goes to visit the oracle at Delphi. Chaerephon asks the oracle whether there is anyone wiser than Socrates. The priestess responds that there isn't: Socrates is the wisest of them all. At first, Socrates seems puzzled.