Steve Jobs predicted generative AI in THIS 1985 speech; WATCH

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs had predicted the invention of generative AI-like tools almost four decades ago in 1985. In a video which is said to be from 1985, Jobs can be heard saying that he hoped an interactive tool could be made in his lifetime. 

Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple Inc in 1976, passed away in October 2011 - a decade before the first generative tool - ChatGPT - was introduced in November 2022. ChatGPT has captured the imaginations of many because of its ability to respond to complex questions and write from poetry to essay to literature. 
   
In 1985, Jobs lamented that he could not ask Aristotle a question. "I mean, I can't...I don't get an answer. And so my hope is that in our lifetimes, we can make a tool of a new kind of an interactive time." 

The tech innovator appeared to be speaking at an event for a product launch. During the speech, he said: "We are now entering another revolution of free energy. Macintosh (Mac computer) uses less power than a few of those light bulbs, and yet can save us a few hours a day or give us a whole new experience. And it's free intellectual energy. It's crude, very crude, but it's getting more refined year after year after year, and in our lifetimes, it should get very refined. 

"And so my hope is someday when the next Aristotle is alive, we can capture the underlying worldview of that Aristotle, in a computer, and someday some students will be able to not only read the words Aristotle wrote but ask Aristotle a question and get an answer. And that's what I hope that we can do. So this is the beginning." 

Jobs further said that the computer industry was in the tank, personal computers, big computers, everything. "And it's difficult. It's a difficult time. But I'm sure that Henry Ford had a few bad quarters back in the 1920s. And the automobile had a sort of historical imperative. It had, the minute it was invented, a sequence of events had to happen. The same is true with the personal computer." 

He was confident that there was tremendous momentum behind the computer industry. This year may be a delay, we may look back and say, well, 1985 was a slow year, but there is such momentum behind this that it will happen. It will permeate and change forever our educational processes. And my hope, again, is that not too many generations of students will pass through before this happens. It will happen within 20 years. It probably will happen within 10 years, but it could happen within five years," he said in the video shared by Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Reacting to the video, Zaki Akhtar, one social media user, said that Jobs was way ahead of time when it came to having a future perspective.