First, for those who may not be familiar with the book, it’s a deeply satirical science fiction novel that describes how humanity discovered, nurtured, abused and later weaponized a new highly capable species of newts. An important piece of context is that this book, which is critical of national socialism, colonialism, racism and capitalism, was written in mid 1930s; well before any modern computers and theories of artificial intelligence. Despite that, as I was reading through the book, I could not ignore how fitting and topical certain parts of the book were given the current hype around AI.

Let’s start with a fascinating look at how one of the early highly intelligent specimens of newts learned to speak and reason mostly through reading newspapers and discussing them with one of the zoo keepers. (Throughout the article, I will be quoting from David Wyllie’s translation available at the Gutenberg Project)

“Glad to meet you Professor. I’m Andy Scheuchzer.”
“How do you know your name is Andrias Scheuchzeri?”
“Well it’s written down here, sir. Andreas Scheuchzer. Gilbert Islands.”
“And do you often read the newspaper?”
“Oh yes sir. Every day.”
“And what parts do you most like to read?”
“Court cases, horse racing, football,…”
“Have you ever seen a football match?”
“No sir.”
“Or a horse race?”
“No sir.”
“Then why do you read it?”
“Cause it’s in the paper, sir.”
“Do you have no interest in politics?”
“No sir. Is there going to be a war?”
“Nobody can tell you that, Andy.”
“Germanys building a new type of submarine,” said Andy anxiously. “Death rays can turn a whole continent to dust.”
“That’s what you’ve read in the paper, is it?” asked Sir Charles.
“Yes sir. Who’s going to win this years Derby; Pelham Beauty or Gobernador?”

This is a perfect analogy to the specific kind of intelligence that LLMs possess: it is an ‘imprint intelligence’ shaped by countless textual artifacts that reflect human intelligence and lived experience. But this intelligence is inherently imperfect and somewhat hollow, as it is not supported by sensory stimuli. Andy will gladly engage in discussions about horse races, even though he has never seen one and his idea of what a horse even looks like is likely far from reality.

Another interesting analogy is the inability to filter and prioritize information: Andy will start confidently talking about death rays as a real thing because its knowledge has no real grounding and cannot effectively tell real news from sensationalism, science fiction or propaganda. It also lacks any common sense to fall back on. The lack of experiential knowledge and common sense is part of the reason why today’s LLMs (at least as of July 2025) make poor autonomous agents, since they are easily tricked into making bad decisions.

Čapek takes Andy’s eloquence and rhetorical skills to a farcical level in a transcript of an experiment:

How old are you?
A.: I don’t know. If you want to look younger, wear the Libella corset.
What is the date today?
A.: Monday. It’s nice weather today. Gibraltar is running in the Epsom this Saturday.

It is clear that Andy has been reading newspapers a little too much. This exchange reminded me of both the sycophantic conversation style of LLMs and their still-too-common hallucinations (confabulations). Andy does his best to impress (or perhaps just to inform) his interviewers by parroting loosely related phrases from ads. Andy does not actually know his age or the date, so he tries to answer with the closest associated information from his memory. While confabulations in LLMs are still being studied, one of the reasons they happen is that the LLM makes its best next word prediction in an unfamiliar context. This means that the prediction truly becomes more of a guess and can lead the model to sometimes make absurd statements.

(This passage could also be linked to a bleak future where LLMs serve you contextual ads as part of its answers.)

Of course, none of this means that Čapek had prophesied how transformers in LLMs would work and expressed it through an analogy using a captive newt. However, it is extremely interesting that many of the tenets of this type of acquired ‘imprint intelligence’ were so fittingly described almost a hundred years ago. It turns out, at least certain aspects of intelligence and cognition are fairly predictable.

Another aspect of the book that has chilling similarities to recent developments and discourse in AI is the cutthroat competitiveness and urge to dominate the market (and the world).

“Gentlemen, please bear in mind the advantages a collaboration of this sort could bring. The Newt Syndicate would provide more than just newts, it would also provide equipment and food for the newts such as maize, carbohydrates, beef fat and sugar for thousands of millions of well fed animals; then there would be transport, insurance, veterinary needs and everything at the lowest rate guaranteed for us if not by a monopoly then at least by being in a dominant position over any other potential rival that might want to deal in newts. Just let them try it, gentlemen; they won’t be in competition with us for long.” (Bravo!)

This is a prime example of monopolistic behaviour and vertical integration, which were well known concepts in Čapek’s time. These concepts aren’t unique to the hyped world of artificial intelligence. However, the way major AI labs like OpenAI are attempting to permeate all possible means of internet production and consumption (such as browsers, productivity apps and code editors) is definitely reminiscent of the Salamander Syndicate plans.

If you are not fully convinced by the analogy, consider all the talk about AI’s huge impact on the workforce, and more recently, how AI agents will act as tireless worker bees that will redraw the economic map of the world. You can contrast it with the following:

And that’s not all, gentlemen. There are still many more functions for the Newt Syndicate to perform. The Salamander syndicate will seek out work for millions of newts all round the world. They will provide the plans and the ideas for subjugating the oceans. It will disseminate ideas of Utopia, dreams that are gigantic, projects for new coastlines and shipping lanes, causeways that will join continents, whole chains of artificial islands for journeys to new lands in the middle of the oceans. That is where the future of mankind lies.

I do not want to spoil the ending of the book but suffice it to say: this grandiose plan backfires splendidly. Go read it, it’s a great book!