The Newts are already here – What Čapek can teach us about our relationship with Artificial Intelligence in “War with the Newts”5 min read
In 1936, Czech author Karel Čapek published his novel War with the Newts in interwar Prague. His allegorical work on colonialism and the limitlessness of human exploitation, told through the story of an obscure species of intelligent Newts, has been translated into at least 25 different languages and is both a Czech classic and a foundational work of contemporary science fiction. It is Čapek who, in his 1920 play R.U.R, gave the world the term robot, and today, 90 years later, his insights might prove worthwhile in our relations with the world`s latest technological hype – Artificial Intelligence.
The Newts, discovered on a distant island somewhere in the Dutch East-Indies, appear to be a miracle. They are intelligent, adaptable, eager to learn, and most importantly, useful. Having taught the Newts basic language and tool usage, mankind immediately puts them to work expanding ports and building maritime infrastructure, first to increase profits, later for reasons of national security in the context of 20th Century imperialism. While the Newts are busy slaving away and generating wealth, the question is not if the Newts should be doing this work, but whether or not they can do it cost (and labour) efficiently.
If this sounds familiar, it is no wonder, considering that our own relationship with AI follows the same logic. While in the first weeks and months of its inception people were astonished at the clumsy initial attempts of AI to write, generate pictures, or analyse data, today it has already become integral to many processes, including research, content generation and large-scale data analysis, even finding its way into human interactions as more and more people seek companionship from the likes of ChatGPT.
Čapek’s Newts are rarely discussed seriously in terms of ethics and morality in the novel itself, except for among some communist agitators and religious fanatics. They are understood as an economic resource, a development mirroring our debates on AI. But what in 1936 begins as a tale of progress and profit eventually turns into a story of abandoned responsibility, as the Newts multiply exponentially and, armed and equipped by the different imperial European powers seeking to protect their shores and colonial possessions, turn on and subjugate humanity by sinking the continental land masses into the ocean.
Far from being a conservative opposed to progress through technological innovation, Čapek seems to have understood the issue with the enthusiasm often accompanying technological progress, mistaking capability for justification. In his novel, each small step seems rational, from teaching the Newts how to speak, to breeding them to create a larger labour force and arming them for matters of national security. The eventual disaster that ensues is not the result of malign intent but occurs through thoughtless accumulation of power, wealth, and control.
We can see this dynamic replicated today in developments pertaining to AI. Companies such as Meta and OpenAI are constantly touting progress and innovation, while users seek comfortable solutions and states voice their excitement for increased competitiveness. Ethical concerns may be acknowledged, but are outsourced and ultimately postponed. Just as the water levels rising up to Dresden are of no concern to one of the novel’s Prague-based characters, we ignore the visible risks associated with AI. Through massive energy demand, AI is destroying our planet; it is becoming increasingly weaponised and autonomous, helping autocratic regimes monitor citizens and Russian drones find targets in Ukraine.
Many stories have been written about evil creatures and robot apocalypses, but Čapek’s Newts are a different type of creature. They are not fundamentally evil, but much like modern day AI trained on human data, they simply follow the logic humanity taught them, endlessly expanding, scaling, optimising, and leaving no room for fault or sentiment. When the Newts eventually threaten humanity with extinction, it is not because they are monsters, but the perfect students and have fully absorbed capitalist demands for infinite growth. Just like the Newts are symptoms of human decay, we are quick to blame AI for making workers redundant, or amplifying disinformation, but at the heart of the issue lies code written by humans.
For Čapek, it is not innovation that threatens humanity, but shortsightedness in the face of excitement. The inherent tragedy is the refusal to limit oneself at the cost of short-term profit or efficiency. At one point in the novel, co-existence through regulation still seems possible, and conflict seems avoidable through forming ties of solidarity. Yet, none of these ideas are taken seriously, and are instead deemed unrealistic or naïve at best, and harmful for business and national security at worst. The idea of pushing forwards now and adapting later strongly resonates in the AI boom climate today, where Silicon Valley CEOs proclaim endless growth and simultaneously fuel an AI bubble waiting to burst. Calls for AI governance and full transparency are dismissed as the mere bureaucratic obsessions of those walking the corridors of Brussels institutions and criticised for endangering Europe’s position in the international game for strategic autonomy.
Yet, this is not a binary question. Čapek’s writing warns against imagining sinister amphibians lurking on the ground of the sea and evil machines plotting in secret, although some Silicon Valley types certainly try their best at mimicking Bond villains. His work, despite the dramatic context, is still light and filled with irony, leaving space to breathe, and most crucially, for human agency. The question of the book leaves us asking today not whether AI is evil, but whether we as society can exercise collective self-restraint and develop technology attentively enough to recognise moral dilemmas before they turn into existential ones. Can humans ultimately recognise intelligence in other species or in other non-human forms as anything other than a means to an end?
Today, as we train and build artificial intelligence models ever more capable and efficient, the teachings of Čapek’s novel should serve as tools to closely examine our progress over the past 90 years. The Newts already live among us; they do not inhabit the sea floor and our shores, but the server rooms and screens of our world. Should they remain helpers or become adversaries ultimately does not depend on their intelligence, but on ours.
