AI and immortality in the year of the snake

In this playful speech given at an awards dinner in Tokyo, Japan in March 2025, I started by wanting to celebrate the Chinese year of the snake. But as I explored what the snake has meant in a whole range of cultures, from Chinese to Egyptian, Indian, Greek and Judeo-Christian, I was coming to interesting conclusions that I had not originally thought about. I realised many of the myths had common themes, the most important of which required humanity to making the choice between good and evil, immortality and renewal. By the time I was exploring the Judeo-Christian version, it gave me the reason we made that choice for knowledge, and why? Because we wanted to be “like god” ourselves. When applied to the profound effect that breakthroughs that Artificial Intelligence will have on humanity right now, I think I understood why. Knowledge would make us gods.  The course for the continuation of our species is constant renewal, just like the snake sheds its skin, and not immortality. It is now left for every generation to build on each other and herein lies the limits of the power that AI will give humanity. Enjoy and let me know your thoughts.