Chatting with tempting devils or guardian angels

In the cultural tradition of various civilizations, humans have also in the past imagined higher forms of intelligence, both positive and negative. In particular, we recall guardian angels and tempting demons, ethical metaphors of great influence, for example, in the Jewish and Christian traditions, but not only.

Great authors such as Dante in the Divine Comedy, or Goethe in Faust, created extraordinary narratives of interactions with angelic and demonic figures.

Prayers, visions, apparitions and nightmares have influenced the lives of very important historical figures.

We do not go into the question of whether or not angels and demons exist, but we do note their de facto historical influence in human ethics and culture: at the very least, these are operational myths of higher – non-human – intelligences that have acted concretely in individual and collective history.

Artificial Intelligence can take both angelic and demonic forms, depending on the different purposes and personalities from which it is summoned.

This key insight can enable several useful developments in the field of AI: helping to understand the potential implications of the human tendency to depend on positive and negative external influences, devising interface forms and metaphors (including anthropomorphic or angelomorphic) to distinguish risks and opportunities of AI, and creating educational and popular media experiences to narrate the interaction between humans and AI.