The Ai Element

S2E6 - Histories of AI: Ancient Greek Myths and the Last AI Boom In 2020, and for our first episode in the new decade, we thought it would be good to continue to dig deeper into how AI has developed over time. Learning about the roots of AI, we are reminded that the north star of this field has always been what we tend to call artificial general intelligence today, intelligence that reflects the full breadth of human intelligence. This puts in context why the recent breakthroughs have been so significant, and at the same time there is still so far to go. On this week’s episode of The AI Element we are joined by two guests who share two very different histories of AI,  one of its ancient roots and the other of contemporary challenges in operationalizing it for mass use.  Adrienne Mayor is a historian and research scholar at Stanford University whose recent work focuses on the earliest imaginings of AI in ancient myths. She shares some insights from ancient Greek myths like Homer’s Iliad and writings by Aristot