Cicero vs Artificial Intelligence
What would the renowned Roman orator and translator think of AI if he could use it today?
Our own writers have tackled the topic with their customary irony and seriousness.
If Cicero had had the chance to experience artificial intelligence, he would probably have first set about testing its limits, trying to work out whether an algorithm could truly rival the art of oratory. He might have started with a solemn speech and eagerly waited for the machine’s reply. What he would have found, instead of powerful, pathos-laden invective, was sterile reformulation, akin to administrative reporting, quite lacking the passion of his appeals to the Roman people.
The Oratory Challenge: Cicero and Artificial Intelligence
Frustrated as he would have been, he would surely have tried again, perhaps requesting a more impelling, more dramatic version. The system, loyal to its own parameters, would however have still sent back a polite, neutral text, devoid of that passion that turned his own words into oratorial weapons. As time went by the great orator would have realised that the machine, no matter how sophisticated, lacked his personal fire and indignation and would be quite incapable of stirring up the crowd in the way the fist-banging rhythm of his prose could.
The Algorithm’s Potential: A Different Art from Oratory
And yet, after all of this, intrigued by the efficiency of the algorithms, he could not fail to wish to explore AI’s potential. He would have discovered that artificial intelligence could summarise complex texts in seconds, translate into languages unknown to him, and retrieve in real time the kind of information that once took days of research to gather.
Perhaps he would have asked himself whether the real problem lay not in the machine, but in how men would choose to use it. At that point, with an awareness of the extraordinary and unsettling nature of his finding, he would perhaps have closed his laptop and gazed out of his window. Rome would still be out there, chaotic and indomitable as ever it was. He, with no need for algorithms, would have known exactly what words to use to win her over.
