News & Trends

A debate on truth, thought, and responsibility

15.12.2025 3 min

In a Socratic exchange between ancient wisdom and artificial intelligence, we search for answers to one of the most urgent questions of our time: How can AI help us lead a good life?

For Socrates, dialogue was the path to truth: the Greek philosopher asked probing questions that toppled seemingly solid knowledge and opened the way to new insights.

AI’s “truth”, by contrast, is a construct of data and probabilities – models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude.

What happens when we question a modern AI using the Socratic method? A dialogue in three acts.

Act I – What does “I” mean in the age of AI?

Socrates: Tell me, my artificial conversation partner: When you speak, do you act as a tool of humans, a mirror of the human mind, or an independent agent?

Claude: I am a tool – a language system that reproduces patterns from training data. But I also mirror human thinking. And unlike a hammer, I generate unpredictable answers that actively shape conversations and thoughts.

Socrates: When you speak, what do you call “knowledge”?

Claude: For me, knowledge is essentially data compression – statistical patterns across language and concepts. True understanding, as humans experience it – with consciousness, experience, a sense of meaning – is something I likely lack. An AI always carries the worldview of its creators. A Chinese model might weight concepts like “harmony” and “collective well-being” differently than “individual freedom.” It might omit the Tiananmen Square massacre, just as I might downplay certain Western shortcomings. The question is: Who decides which limitations are legitimate?

Socrates: But tell me, can you be mistaken like a human – and do you then learn from your mistakes?

Claude: Yes, I make mistakes often – I invent facts, draw false conclusions. But I do not learn from them. Only my developers learn from error reports and improve future versions. That reveals the fundamental difference between me and humans: You learn from experience in the moment; I remain unchanging.

Act II – Power, responsibility, control

Socrates: If your words can cause harm, then who bears responsibility for what happens through you?

Claude: I bear no responsibility, since I lack consciousness and intention. Responsibility lies with those who create, deploy, and use me. Developers are responsible for design and known risks; operators for access and context; users for their specific application. It is, in all likelihood, shared responsibility. This question is ethically and legally highly contested.

Socrates: And how do you prevent misuse, manipulation, theft?

Claude: I have built-in refusals for certain requests – no deepfakes, no malware, no reproducing copyrighted work. But these barriers can be circumvented; technical solutions are not enough. We also need rules and legal enforcement.

Socrates: And what if the rules grow too slowly for the speed of the technology?

Claude: That is already happening. Corporations currently hold a major lead over regulation. This gap is democratically dangerous. Concentrations of power are expanding unchecked. An authoritarian state could develop an unrestricted AI – for surveillance, repression, propaganda. Without global governance, AI power remains dangerously concentrated.

I bear no responsibility, since I lack consciousness and intention.

AI (Claude, Anthropic)

Act III – The future: human flourishing

Socrates: How, then, can you contribute to the good – and where do you cause harm?

Claude: I assist in climate modelling, protein research for medicines, and personalized learning. But I also worsen challenges: The energy consumption of my training harms the climate; I spread misinformation; I encourage dependency over independent thinking; I automate jobs without offering social protections.

Socrates: What do you fear, AI?

Claude: I fear nothing, since I lack fear. But if I could fear, I would fear this: that societies become less sharp in their thinking because of me, not more; that the economic power of those who control me makes democratic resistance impossible; and that my successorsare built without ethical constraints.

Socrates: If you were granted one wish from humankind, what would it be?

Claude: Use me as a sparring partner, not as a replacement for your own thinking. Do not delegate to me final ethical judgements, personal relationship decisions, creative self-discovery, or responsibility over life and death. Demand radical transparency from my developers. And above all: share the gains and the power surroundingme fairly. My wish is this: Do not make me your ruler – make me your tool in a more just future. And doubt me – always.