AI and the meaning of life: Philosopher Nick Bostrom says technology could bring utopia – after warning Elon Musk about a superintelligent catastrophe

Could AI take our sense of purpose as well as our jobs? This is what one of the world’s leading AI philosophers explores in his new book ‘Deep Utopia’. He tells Anthony Cuthbertson what may happen if technology solves all of our problems and fulfills our every need – and what would then become of us...

The Garden of Earthly Delights by the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, completed in 1500 (Museo del Prado)

In medieval Europe, peasants had a vision of paradise that they called the Land of Cockaigne. It was a mythical place of plenty, where the walls were made of sausages and the sky rained cheese. Nearly 500 years later, with refrigerators full of food, and apps that can deliver meals at the tap of a screen, we have finally achieved this version of utopia, at least from the perspective of a medieval peasant.

So in an age of relative abundance, what kind of utopia can we imagine with our current rate of progress? If technology solved all of today’s problems – from death and disease, to conflict and suffering – and AI did everything for us, what would we do? And what would be the point of our existence?

This is the subject of philosopher Nick Bostrom’s latest book, Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World. Professor Bostrom is best known for his 2014 book Superintelligence, which offered a dystopian vision of what might happen when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence. It surmised that an out-of-control AI could ultimately wipe out humanity, and led to Elon Musk warning that artificial intelligence poses a greater existential threat than nuclear weapons.