Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In the “Prelude,” Tegmark tells the fictional story of “the Omega Team” and their superintelligent AI, Prometheus, a subject that returns in Chapter 4. The Omega Team uses Prometheus to build an entertainment empire, generate immense wealth, and reshape the global political order through the subtle manipulation of the human mind via changes in national and international news media. The team is composed of idealistic AI researchers whose main objective is to do as much good as possible. All the while, as they’re growing their fortune and maximizing their effect on the world, they try to keep the existence of Prometheus a secret and abide by “the secret internal slogan ‘The Truth, nothing but the truth, but maybe not the whole truth’” (16). Prometheus is also able to determine the most efficient means by which to design and manufacture technologies, whom to bribe, and how best to achieve a restructuring of world powers.

As time passes, Prometheus becomes more advanced, learning from its interactions with the world and developing greater intelligence. The Omega Team continues to push Prometheus to shift the world discourse toward nuclear disarmament, climate change, education, democracy, and open borders “to erode all previous power structures in the world” (18).