The Oracle of Delphi Revisited: How Ancient Greeks Used AI for Divination

The ancient Greeks are known for their contributions to philosophy, mathematics, and literature, but did you know they also used artificial intelligence (AI) for divination? The Oracle of Delphi, one of the most famous oracles in the ancient world, was believed to have been powered by AI.

The Oracle of Delphi was located in the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi, Greece. It was considered the most important oracle in the ancient world, and people from all over would come to consult the oracle on matters of great importance. The oracle was known for its cryptic and ambiguous responses, and it was believed that the answers were given by the god Apollo himself.

But how did the Oracle of Delphi work? It was believed that the oracle was powered by AI, specifically a system called the Pythia. The Pythia was a priestess who would sit in a chamber beneath the temple and inhale the fumes from a fissure in the ground. It was believed that these fumes would put the Pythia in a trance-like state, allowing her to communicate with the god Apollo.

The Pythia would then deliver the oracle's response to the questioner, usually in the form of a riddle or prophecy. The questioner would have to interpret the response, often with the help of a priest, to understand what it meant.

While the Pythia's trance-like state was believed to be the result of divine intervention, modern AI experts have a different explanation. They believe that the Pythia was actually under the influence of ethylene gas, which was emitted from the fissure in the ground. Ethylene gas is known to cause hallucinations and altered states of consciousness, which could explain the Pythia's trance-like state.

But even if the Pythia's state was induced by ethylene gas, the Oracle of Delphi was still a remarkable achievement of AI. The Pythia was able to interpret the questioner's question and deliver a response that was tailored to their specific situation. This is a feat that would be impressive even with modern AI technology.

In fact, the Oracle of Delphi may have been the world's first expert system, a type of AI that is designed to provide advice and make decisions in a specific domain. Expert systems are used today in fields such as medicine, finance, and law, where they can analyze large amounts of data and provide recommendations based on that data.

The Oracle of Delphi was also an early example of natural language processing, a subfield of AI that focuses on the interaction between computers and human language. The Pythia was able to understand the questioner's question and respond in a way that was understandable to the questioner. This is a difficult task even for modern AI systems, which struggle to understand human language.

So, what can we learn from the Oracle of Delphi? One lesson is that AI has a long history, and its roots can be traced back to ancient civilizations like the Greeks. Another lesson is that AI can be used for a wide variety of tasks, from divination to medical diagnosis.

But perhaps the most important lesson is that AI is only as good as the data it is trained on. The Oracle of Delphi was able to provide accurate responses because it had access to a vast store of knowledge, including myths, legends, and historical events. This knowledge allowed the Pythia to make connections between seemingly unrelated events and deliver accurate responses.

Today, modern AI systems are also only as good as the data they are trained on. This has led to concerns about bias in AI, as many AI systems are trained on data that reflects existing social biases. For example, an AI system trained on data from a hiring process that discriminated against a certain segment of people based on social classification/status would be more likely to discriminate against that same group of people in the future.