Did Steve Jobs predict LLM-based AI in 1985? His fascination with this Greek philosopher suggests he did

Steve Jobs was a man of boundless curiosity. The Apple co-founder, who revolutionized personal computing, music, and smartphones, was also a deep thinker with an insatiable hunger for knowledge. But there was one question he could never ask—at least, not in his lifetime.

In a 1985 talk in Sweden, Jobs revealed an unusual source of envy: Alexander the Great. The reason? The young conqueror had Aristotle as his personal mentor for over a decade. «I read this, and I became immensely jealous,» Jobs admitted. He could read Aristotle’s works, of course, but what he truly craved was interaction—an opportunity to ask questions and get answers from the philosopher himself.

And then, he made a prediction. A bold one. A hope for the future:

«My hope is that in our lifetimes, we can make a tool of a new kind, of an interactive kind… Someday, some student will be able to not only read the words Aristotle wrote, but ask Aristotle a question and get an answer.»

Decades later, Jobs' vision seems eerily close to reality. Today’s large language models (LLMs)—the AI-driven tools powering chatbots, virtual assistants, and even historical figure simulations—may be fulfilling the dream he voiced almost 40 years ago.

Apple CEO Tim Cook teases the new MacBook Air. What we know so far

The Visionary Who Saw the Future

Steve Jobs' life was a blend of art, technology, and philosophy. A college dropout who wandered through India in search of spiritual enlightenment, he was fascinated by Zen Buddhism and intuition as