What if one of the oldest stories in Western literature is also one of the earliest stories about artificial intelligence?

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has brought new attention to Homer's epics — but they're only the beginning of a much longer story about intelligent machines.

In this Season 14 finale, historian of science Professor Elly R. Truitt (University of Pennsylvania) traces that story from Homer's self-navigating ships and golden handmaidens, through the bronze giant Talos of wider Greek myth, to the mechanical courts of Baghdad and Byzantium, medieval Europe, and today's anxieties about AI. Along the way: what these machines reveal about slavery and servitude in the societies that imagined them, and why — as Truitt argues — a technology that further concentrates power in the hands of people who already have it was never actually revolutionary.

In this episode of Age of AI, we speak with Branka Panic about the first-ever UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, where representatives from nearly 170 countries gathered in Geneva to discuss the future of global AI policy. Drawing on her firsthand experience at the conference, Branka explains what happened beyond the official speeches, why many participants questioned whether the event truly fostered dialogue, and what the discussions revealed about the growing divide between AI leaders and the Global South.

We explore the challenges of building international consensus, the findings of the UN's new Scientific Panel on AI, and whether global institutions can keep pace with one of the fastest-moving technologies in history. If AI is reshaping the world, who gets to write the rules?

Links:

• Global Dialogue on AI Governance
• AI For Good Summit
• Geneva Digital Week
• AI For Peace
• Twenty-nine countries sign agreement to establish global AI cooperation body

AI may appear immaterial, but the cloud has a physical footprint. In this episode of Age of AI, Ford Copple joins us to discuss the data centers behind artificial intelligence, including their economic benefits, energy and water demands, local impacts, and the policy choices communities face as AI infrastructure expands.

Links:

• Building a Human-Centered
  Digital Future
• Sutherland Institute releases AI data center research in new series on technology policy
• https://www.datacenterpolicy.com