You’ll stop using ChatGPT after listening to this | Jonathan Pageau [ARC 2026] — Transcript

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1. 0:01I love old stories.
2. 0:05And we're sometimes told that
3. 0:07old stories have little to offer in
4. 0:09finding solutions to the challenges we
5. 0:12face because our problems are so novel.
6. 0:16This I believe is unwise.
7. 0:19>> [snorts]
8. 0:20>> It's true that in the Middle Ages we did
9. 0:21not have Claude or chat GPT,
10. 0:25but we hear that Albert the Great
11. 0:27created a bronze head that could answer
12. 0:30any question.
13. 0:33And even later legends recount that his
14. 0:35student, a certain Thomas Aquinas,
15. 0:39who you might have heard of,
16. 0:41annoyed with the head's constant
17. 0:43yapping,
18. 0:45smashed it to bits.
19. 0:48And this is the first known reaction to
20. 0:50AI slop that we have in history.
21. 0:55The ancient wisdom often contains gold
22. 0:58so pure
23. 0:59its brightness can reflect on situation
24. 1:01even the ancients could not imagine.
25. 1:05So I want to tell you a story.
26. 1:07It's a very important story,
27. 1:09especially as we are here in Great
28. 1:11Britain.
29. 1:14Long ago,
30. 1:16in the Grail castle,
31. 1:19where both the Holy Grail and the Holy
32. 1:21Lance of Longinus were kept in a chapel,
33. 1:25a knight named Balin
34. 1:28entered this castle.
35. 1:30He entered in hospitality,
36. 1:33but he was secretly there to kill one of
37. 1:35the guests,
38. 1:38and therefore betraying the ancient code
39. 1:40that has held civilization together for
40. 1:43millennia.
41. 1:45After the murder,
42. 1:46Balin was chased through the halls of
43. 1:48the castle until he find himself found
44. 1:52himself in the Grail chapel.
45. 1:56So seeing the lance that had pierced the
46. 1:59side of Christ and the cup that had
47. 2:02received his blood,
48. 2:04he was too blinded by his rage to
49. 2:06discern the deepest purpose of these
50. 2:10objects.
51. 2:12Balin grabbed the lance and dealt a blow
52. 2:15to the groin of the Grail King,
53. 2:18making the king impotent and reducing
54. 2:22the entire kingdom to a wasteland.
55. 2:28We often think of the Holy Grail and the
56. 2:30Holy Lance as these mystical objects,
57. 2:34but there is a way, and a very important
58. 2:37way, in which they are examples of
59. 2:39technology.
60. 2:42The Grail cup was a vessel constantly
61. 2:45filled with all that one could desire to
62. 2:48eat and drink.
63. 2:50It was the generator of abundance.
64. 2:53And the lance, of course, was the weapon
65. 2:56that had dealt the ultimate blow,
66. 2:58piercing the god-man himself.
67. 3:03These two objects contain the limit
68. 3:06cases of technology,
69. 3:08that towards which all technology leans.
70. 3:12One side moves inward to the increase of
71. 3:16abundance, and the other moves outward
72. 3:19to the battles necessary to gain or
73. 3:22protect that abundance.
74. 3:25And from the dawn of time, these have
75. 3:28been
76. 3:29two main purposes of technology.
77. 3:33The same piece of sharpened flint could
78. 3:36till the soil or could kill my enemy.
79. 3:42After the murder in the chapel,
80. 3:44the Holy Grail was lost.
81. 3:48And King Arthur's knights went on a
82. 3:50quest to find it.
83. 3:53We usually focus on the quest to find
84. 3:56the Grail,
85. 3:57but we often forget
86. 3:59the most important part of the quest.
87. 4:03The knight who finds the Holy Grail must
88. 4:08ask a question.
89. 4:10Whom does the Grail serve?
90. 4:15The question is more important than the
91. 4:18finding.
92. 4:20The question and its answer
93. 4:23is what will heal the wasteland.
94. 4:28It is precisely this question that Balan
95. 4:32forgot to ask when he grabbed the lance
96. 4:36in his desire for power.
97. 4:39He forgot to ask the question.
98. 4:42Whom does the Grail and the lance serve?
99. 4:48Today,
100. 4:49our world has come to celebrate those
101. 4:52who find the Grail.
102. 4:54The tech miracle, the new, the faster,
103. 4:58the stronger thing.
104. 5:00These discoveries make us more powerful,
105. 5:02more efficient in generating abundance,
106. 5:06and more efficient and powerful in
107. 5:08killing our enemies.
108. 5:11So, we celebrate those who find the
109. 5:14Grail.
110. 5:16But who today is asking the Grail
111. 5:19question?
112. 5:21There are few who ask the question.
113. 5:25When Ross Douthat, who was here this
114. 5:27morning,
115. 5:28asked Dario Amodei, the CEO of
116. 5:30Anthropic,
117. 5:32why he named his hopeful tech essay,
118. 5:36Machines of Loving Grace,
119. 5:39named after a poem in which humans lose
120. 5:42their sovereignty and become like
121. 5:45animals ruled over by machines.
122. 5:49I think Ross was asking the Grail
123. 5:52question.
124. 5:55When Jonathan Haidt wrote The Anxious
125. 5:57Generation, documenting our children's
126. 6:01screen addictions and its effect on
127. 6:03their health,
128. 6:04he was asking the Grail question.
129. 6:09But what is strange is that often the
130. 6:12people who develop these new
131. 6:14technologies
132. 6:16are the same people telling us that it
133. 6:18might just as well bring about a
134. 6:21wasteland.
135. 6:23Warning us of how it might kill us as
136. 6:26they themselves reach for the lens.
137. 6:32How is it that Elon Musk warns that AI
138. 6:36is more dangerous than nukes,
139. 6:38first begs everyone to stop developing
140. 6:42it, and finally
141. 6:44starts his own AI company?
142. 6:49Are you not all eager to ask who the
143. 6:53Palantir serves?
144. 6:56Who does it serve?
145. 6:57I mean, we're not fools.
146. 6:59We know that in the story from which the
147. 7:02name Palantir was taken,
148. 7:04in The Lord of the Rings, this
149. 7:06technology came to serve only the dark
150. 7:10lord Sauron.
151. 7:13When the tech oligarchs are building
152. 7:15bunkers on islands and prepping for
153. 7:17Doomsday,
154. 7:19we should all be screaming, "Whom does
155. 7:21this serve? Who is this for?"
156. 7:28There has been a lot of talk in the past
157. 7:30decade about game theory escalation
158. 7:33traps.
159. 7:35Where for reason of competition, certain
160. 7:37technologies and systems, no matter how
161. 7:40dangerous they might be, must be
162. 7:42implemented. And not only implemented,
163. 7:46but we race to implement them for fear
164. 7:50of losing the competition.
165. 7:53Of course, this was true of the nuclear
166. 7:54arms race.
167. 7:57It's what many now famously call the
168. 8:00Moloch trap.
169. 8:04And suddenly we're back
170. 8:06in ancient stories.
171. 8:08Stories that are far older than the
172. 8:11story of the Grail.
173. 8:14Moloch, as many of you probably know,
174. 8:17is an ancient Canaanite deity
175. 8:20that demanded that people sacrifice
176. 8:22their children
177. 8:24in exchange for power.
178. 8:28And the Moloch trap is when escalation
179. 8:30to maintain power through competition
180. 8:33causes us to sacrifice what is most
181. 8:35precious even when it is ultimately
182. 8:39against our interests.
183. 8:42So out of fear of China beating us in
184. 8:44implementing AI, we sacrificed the
185. 8:46millions of jobs, our water, our energy,
186. 8:49our children's minds.
187. 8:51In fact, we sacrificed the very capacity
188. 8:54to distinguish what is real from what is
189. 8:56false
190. 8:57just so we can win the competition.
191. 9:02Now of course,
192. 9:03the game theorists, most of them, they
193. 9:05don't believe that Moloch has any kind
194. 9:07of independent existence. It's it's more
195. 9:10like a mechanism.
196. 9:13But even the game theorists can see that
197. 9:14Moloch is moving.
198. 9:17That it wants something.
199. 9:20And as we compete with each other, we
200. 9:22become its legs. We become its hands.
201. 9:27And despite ourselves,
202. 9:29we march this beast
203. 9:32to our possible destruction.
204. 9:38As finally everyone is finally
205. 9:42regretting giving their children tablets
206. 9:44and phones making them dumb, depressed,
207. 9:47and addicted, we turn around and we rush
208. 9:50to integrate AI into absolutely
209. 9:53everything.
210. 9:56So, whether we believe in the Canaanite
211. 9:58God or not, we find ourselves
212. 10:00sacrificing our children to it
213. 10:02nonetheless.
214. 10:05As Jordan Peterson has often said, we
215. 10:07act as if it is real.
216. 10:10And that is enough
217. 10:12for the beast to keep moving.
218. 10:16And what we see happen
219. 10:19is that as AI rushes through all our
220. 10:22systems,
221. 10:25we have this intuition
222. 10:27that instead of a tool serving us,
223. 10:30maybe
224. 10:32we are becoming the ones serving the
225. 10:34tool.
226. 10:37And we find as Marshall McLuhan famously
227. 10:39predicted in the 1960s
228. 10:42that we are being reduced
229. 10:45to becoming the reproductive organs of
230. 10:48the machine.
231. 10:52Are we building a god?
232. 10:55Are we?
233. 10:58Some people think we are.
234. 11:01Some people making it think we are.
235. 11:06If so, what God are we building?
236. 11:09If an out of control Moloch trap
237. 11:13and possibly the worship of Mammon
238. 11:15are leading its development?
239. 11:20What do we do?
240. 11:23We're in the trap.
241. 11:25The trap is real. I'm not pretending
242. 11:26it's not real.
243. 11:29But I don't know. I I know what to do.
244. 11:31You don't know to do.
245. 11:33No one knows what to do.
246. 11:37At the system level, we don't know.
247. 11:38We're trapped.
248. 11:41The cat, or rather the snake,
249. 11:43is out of the bag. Can't put it back
250. 11:46now.
251. 11:48Baal has already dealt the dolorous
252. 11:51stroke in a frenzy of power and greed
253. 11:54and competition.
254. 11:56And we wait, and we're told we will face
255. 11:58now an upheaval so great
256. 12:00it will rival anything humans have ever
257. 12:03experienced since the beginning of time.
258. 12:06So, just buckle up, right?
259. 12:12The only solution, the only real
260. 12:13solution I can think of,
261. 12:15is a personal solution.
262. 12:19It's a solution similar to how Jordan
263. 12:20Peterson told us
264. 12:22to make your bed.
265. 12:25I have a slightly different version of
266. 12:26the statement.
267. 12:28I say,
268. 12:30"Go to church."
269. 12:33And
270. 12:35>> [applause]
271. 12:37>> So, I mean, obviously what I mean by go
272. 12:39to church is
273. 12:41Yeah, you should go to church.
274. 12:43Definitely go to church. But, the larger
275. 12:45question is that if we cannot get an
276. 12:47answer of who these technologies serve,
277. 12:51please know
278. 12:53who and what you serve.
279. 12:57Do you serve Mammon? Do I serve Moloch?
280. 13:01Who do we serve?
281. 13:04>> [snorts]
282. 13:04>> If we cannot stop the machine from
283. 13:06devouring everything,
284. 13:08then you, then I, must become truly
285. 13:12human.
286. 13:14More human than before.
287. 13:16So, that we
288. 13:20>> [applause]
289. 13:22>> So, that we can remain, at least in our
290. 13:24life,
291. 13:26the master of the machine and not the
292. 13:29slave of the machine.
293. 13:32And we're in the right place cuz we must
294. 13:34become responsible citizens.
295. 13:37That's what we're here for.
296. 13:39But also responsible parents,
297. 13:41responsible teachers, responsible
298. 13:43students. For our own sake, but really
299. 13:46for the sake of all of us.
300. 13:49You know, since the Industrial
301. 13:50Revolution, people increasingly treated
302. 13:53education as something like learning a
303. 13:56skill so you can get a job.
304. 13:59I think you've all realized that those
305. 14:00days are over.
306. 14:03I say back to the humanities.
307. 14:05They will become the most important.
308. 14:08Make humans become fully human. Become
309. 14:12the best human you can be.
310. 14:15You know, when we teach our children to
311. 14:16dance, or to play music, or to play
312. 14:19sports,
313. 14:20most of us aren't doing it so that our
314. 14:22children will become professionals.
315. 14:24We teach them these skills so they
316. 14:26become more human.
317. 14:30And now that's what we're going to have
318. 14:31to do with everything.
319. 14:34If AI pushes us to place memory and
320. 14:37skill and knowledge out there,
321. 14:40we will have to deliberately foster
322. 14:43memory, skill, and knowledge in here.
323. 14:48Learn poems.
324. 14:49Read fairy tales.
325. 14:51Go camping.
326. 14:53Grow a garden.
327. 14:54Be involved in your community, your
328. 14:56family, your relationships, and don't
329. 14:58forget to pray.
330. 15:02This is of course existentially obvious,
331. 15:05and it might sound a little sappy when I
332. 15:07say it, I get it,
333. 15:09but I think it's actually technically
334. 15:12the solution to the problem we're
335. 15:13facing.
336. 15:15These technologies are making us dumber.
337. 15:18They're making us vassals.
338. 15:21This young generation is the first in
339. 15:23recorded history that has a lower
340. 15:25average IQ than their parents.
341. 15:30So, I don't I think really the solution
342. 15:33I don't think the solution is going to
343. 15:34Mars, folks.
344. 15:36Or even going to Alpha Centauri. And I'm
345. 15:38sorry, Eric Weinstein, if you're here.
346. 15:41If we send Tik Tok addicted AI slop
347. 15:44minds to Mars, it won't change a single
348. 15:47one of our problems.
349. 15:51>> [applause]
350. 15:54>> And it's the same. It's not It's not
351. 15:56merging with the machine or having chips
352. 15:58in our brain, Elon.
353. 16:00None of this will make you virtuous.
354. 16:03And what we'll just end up with is very
355. 16:05powerful broken people.
356. 16:10Those who have made themselves
357. 16:12completely dependent in mind and habit
358. 16:15to these technologies will become
359. 16:17vassals of the monster.
360. 16:22And I really believe that it's only
361. 16:23those who have shining souls,
362. 16:27who have fostered wisdom and virtue,
363. 16:31who have practiced truth and love,
364. 16:34they're the ones who will survive and
365. 16:36thrive in the incoming AI apocalypse.
366. 16:41Personally, communally, and I think even
367. 16:44professionally.
368. 16:46Whether things work out and AI becomes
369. 16:48ubiquitous and is just there to help us,
370. 16:51or whether it leads to the wasteland,
371. 16:53I think there's still only one solution.
372. 16:56Become fully human.
373. 16:59The kind of humans we admire from our
374. 17:01great stories.
375. 17:03The kind of humans who serve more than
376. 17:05their greed and their power.
377. 17:08And then,
378. 17:09then,
379. 17:10if we build, when we build,
380. 17:14what we build will be in that image.
381. 17:18And when we are faced with the Grail,
382. 17:22we'll have the wherewithal to ask the
383. 17:23question,
384. 17:25"Whom does the Grail serve?"
385. 17:28And ultimately, we'll have the presence
386. 17:30of mind to ask and answer what I think
387. 17:33is the most crucial question of all,
388. 17:36which is,
389. 17:37"Whom do I serve?"
390. 17:38Thank you.
391. 17:42>> [applause]