Editorial Series

THE QUESTIONS GREAT MINDS WOULD ASK AI

We give history’s greatest minds access to the technology they never had — and ask what they might do with it.

What happens when the world’s most extraordinary thinkers meet the most powerful thinking tool of our time? Each essay in this series imagines a conversation between a historically significant mind and a modern AI system — not by pretending to know what they would literally say, but by asking the questions that emerge naturally from their work, their obsessions, their contradictions, and their worldview.

The questions are imaginative. The grounding is not: every essay stays anchored in what each thinker actually studied, argued, and cared about. Think of it as intellectual time travel — a thought experiment about how different kinds of intelligence would interrogate artificial intelligence.

Six minds · six definitions of intelligence

Albert EinsteinWhat is reality?
Steve JobsWhat should we build?
Leonardo da VinciWhat haven't we observed?
Alan TuringWhat does it mean to think?
Nikola TeslaWhat is physically possible?
AristotleWhat is worth doing?

In the series

What Would Albert Einstein Ask ChatGPT?If Albert Einstein were alive today, what would he ask ChatGPT? Explore 25 questions about physics, time, reality, consciousness, intelligence, and the future of AI.Aug 14, 202612 min readWhat Would Steve Jobs Ask ChatGPT?If Steve Jobs were alive today, what would he ask ChatGPT? Explore 25 questions about creativity, design, taste, simplicity, human potential, and what technology is actually for.Aug 14, 202612 min read

Coming next

What Would Leonardo da Vinci Ask AI?Nature, observation, machines, and the false border between art and science.
What Would Alan Turing Ask ChatGPT?Intelligence, computation, consciousness, and the limits of artificial thought.
What Would Nikola Tesla Ask AI?Energy, invention, and what is physically possible but technologically neglected.
What Would Aristotle Ask an AI?Knowledge, virtue, happiness, and what civilization should optimize for.

And beyond: Darwin, Curie, Feynman, Lovelace, Socrates, Newton, Galileo, Sagan, Hawking…