The Ecological Cost of the Digital Revolution

Every time you have some new discovery promising a phenomenal  and unprecedented transformation in people’s lives for the better, there is an inevitable scramble to get a piece of the action- the ecological, environmental, and social consequences of doing so be damned. This is as true of the unbelievable stock market bull run and the cryptocurrency mania of today as it was of the spice and ivory trade of ancient times.

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The current mad rush to digitise everything that exists on this good Earth is reminiscent of the unholy contest amongst the newly industrialised European powers a few centuries ago to carve out their colonies in the resource-rich Americas, Africa, and Asia and strip them of everything valuable. The glories that the age of digitisation promises discount the negative impacts of the inexorable race towards a non-analog future. Never mind that the world is already battling the problem of monumental electronic waste in the form of discarded phones, laptops, and batteries. Likewise, it doesn’t matter that the digital revolution requires gargantuan levels of electricity consumption to sustain itself, exacerbating an already precarious climate change scenario. Everything seems to be lost in the clamour of achieving ever-higher valuations by the leading tech companies of the world, especially the ones invested in artificial intelligence or AI.

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The social havoc being wreaked by relentless digitisation is all-pervasive. You can see it in the  children who, from a young age, get addicted to their electronic gadgets, with their appalling consequences for  their growth and development. Furthermore, the collapse of traditional ways and means of social networking for people across age groups, as well as the dangers posed by deepfake technology, are not things that can be swept under the carpet without reaping the most harmful consequences in the times ahead.

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Let us just look at the ecological costs of the so-called digital revolution and ask ourselves if it is worth all the trouble we are taking to herald it. For all the talk of the growing carbon footprint of our modern lifestyles and the need to avoid unnecessary travel, especially by fossil fuel-run automobiles and aeroplaneswe would be shocked to know that merely using the Internet contributes as much as 1.5% to 4% of the total global greenhouse emissions. 

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The inevitable proliferation of AI-powered devices, owing to these being touted as being absolutely indispensable for everyone in the times ahead, leads to a spectre of unprecedented levels of electronic waste. One can get some idea about what lies ahead by letting it sink in that the 2020 Global E-Waste Monitor report points to an e-waste generation of a whopping 53.6 million tonnes. Shockingly, of this, only a mease;y 17.4% had been collected and recycled.

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What is particularly worrying is the fact that, despite the fact that global digital activity is a relatively recent phenomenon, it has already contributed to 3.7% of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2019 study, which is pretty close to the emission levels accounted for by the much maligned aviation industry. Worryingly, electricity consumption on account of digital technology grew by almost 70% from 2013 to 2020.

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The ecological cost of the digital revolution has to be weighed against its purported benefits by  way of enhanced productivity and profitability on the part of  business houses. Any expected ecological benefits accruing on account of more efficient use of resources and the ability to find solutions to some of mankind's pressing problems pertaining to healthcare, logistics, e-commerce and communication have to be measured against the ecological downside to using the ever expanding ambit of digital product and services. Rushing boldly and madly into the euphoric universe of all pervading rampant digitisation without pausing to study its accompanying negative ramifications is as foolhardy as it possibly can be.

 

Is AI Empowering Nincompoops to Pose and Prosper?

 

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We live in an era when people with the intellectual capability of a lemon and the integrity of a centipede position themselves as authors, thought leaders, mentors, consultants and the new age abomination, influencers. These are people who would be laughed out of a nursery class, sound like a sugar cane crushing machine and have the gravitas of a mill-stone. Yet, all they need to do is to turn to the array of wondrous AI tools, and voila- they turn into Booker prize level writers, Sigmund Freud type of psycho-analysts and David Attenborough kind of documentary makers! Democracy, they say, is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, which is all very well, but it needs a system based on meritocracy to really deliver the goods. 

With everyone and their uncle convincing each other in their very own echo chambers that they are all the salt of  the earth, there is no place for critical thinking or the pursuit of truthful knowledge, ultimately resulting in the downfall of us as a species that has the ability to achieve wonders beyond belief. The post-truth world that we are busy constructing doesn’t have a rosy future at all. It can ultimately only result in Artificial Intelligence taking over our planet and extinguishing the flame of human endeavour and achievement that has burned bright for hundreds of thousands of years.

When people turn to AI to do creative tasks for them, it simply rehashes what has already been created by humans. It efficiently analyses data and efficiently discerns patterns on the basis of which it comes up with something that it thinks best approximates the task assigned to it via prompt. This by its very nature is pretentious, often repetitive and not really worthy of trust. How long can this go on before AI runs out of answers and solutions it can churn out merely by regurgitating old data. We are told this will change when Agentic AI truly arrives. When Agetic AI truly arrives, why will it need to pander to the whims, fancies and caprices of human beings. It might do so on its own.

Agentic AI may or may not say the light of the day, but in the meantime we are saddled with the problem of morons masquerading as marvelous human beings. That is because the number of plainly stupid people now have an audience of fellow zombies to whom they can pitch their drivel and even profit from it, while the real work is performed by the really capable who bear the burden of the trouble caused by a gargantuan army of simpletons imagining themselves to be visionary profits.

Human beings lived as hunter-gatherers and cave dwelling beings not much better than the animals around them for hundreds and thousands of years without making any progress in their lifestyle until someone figured out that it is better to farm for food than to hunt or scour dangerous landscapes for sourcing it. Millions of idiots purveying their AI generated nonsense to their equally stupid followers will doubtless hope to do so in perpetuity. But how can an edifice based on incompetence stand forever?

Sooner or later people, even the most stupid ones will realise that they are all collectively chasing a chimera, which is not actually helping them in any real way. That will hopefully teach people to be careful about whom and what they trust when it comes to acquiring knowledge or skills that may be of use to them. The bells and whistles of technology that enable content creators to come up with seemingly slick presentations cannot forever hold their audience in thrall.

 They will have to come to their senses for their own good. Currently, they are hooked to the dopamine rush that such content gives them and are willingly letting this kind of content consumption become a dangerous addiction. The day they realise the harm they are doing themselves, will be the day that they return to the straight and narrow path of honest, diligent and genuine work that actually creates value for themselves and others.

Algorithm-The Tyrant

 

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The world seems to have been taken over by the algorithm, which dictates who becomes a winner or loser in life, not based on merit, but on predecided criteria created merely to enrich the businesses who offer the platforms for people to carry out transactions in their day to day lives. As technology permeates everything we do in the present times ranging from work and recreation to banking, healthcare and communication, the stranglehold of the algorithm is no different than the pernicious hold of the subject nation’s economy by an erstwhile colonial power.

The powers that be who control the algorithm are driven by profit and will devise any mechanism to achieve that even if that means fanning fluff and hype with the intent of monetising it to the utmost. By offering efficiency they seek to wrest total control of people’s faculties, taking away from them the ability to be objective and capable of independent decision making.

When your choices with regard to where you eat or travel to, what clothes you wear and even whom you befriend are dictated to by an algorithm primed to enhance engagement or some online platform you lose out on free will. Remember the Matrix movies? Those scenarios are playing out pretty much all around us all the time. People are known to drive off cliffs and bridges and die following GPS instructions rather than use their common sense and ask someone for directions. 

The classical battle between free wheeling capitalism and stifling communism has no meaning in an algorithm driven society that thrives for homogeneity. Ironically, this is the result of the former rather than the latter. The digitisation of the world, for all its ability to connect countries across the world like never before has at the same time become the personal fiefdom of a few monopolies who reap the major share of the profits it generates.

If you were to drive along a major highway in most countries of the world, the sameness of the facilities available in terms of motels and major international fast food chains and restaurants is remarkable. People find comfort in the familiar and the role that algorithms play in conditioning them to think that way is something that is or should be a cause for immense worry. They have become quite passive in their approach to most activities in life. This loss of the individual self in favour of comfort and ease of existence is a tragic fall from grace for humanity, but who seems to care?

There are algorithm induced personal recommendations catering to every need and fancy, making people slaves of instant gratification and unable to appreciate the immense benefits of delayed satisfaction of wants and desires. This leads to them living life like a candle burning at both the ends--flicking their way to nothingness, in terms of how they evolve as individuals. Shortened attention spans mean that people chase viral or trending news, losing their ability to discern fact from fiction and knowledge from plain rumors and conspiracy theories. The absence of any kind of quality curation thanks to the rapacious and greed driven nature of most algorithmic settings is wreaking havoc with the collective psyche of the world, leading people to a scary abyss of ignorance, apathy and dysfunction.

As with any other tyranny, the tyranny of the algorithm needs to be overthrown. By allowing a generation of Attention Deficit Disorder afflicted youngsters to normalise algorithm directed behaviour is akin to turning them into sheep, herded into restricted pens by a malevolent shepherd bent upon controlling them for the rest of their lives for personal profit. The exponential growth of AI has added a new urgency about how to give back people the control of their lives in terms of every aspect of how they live it. 

Youngsters need to be taught to think beyond what is recommended to them and learn to think for themselves rather than try endlessly to conform to whatever the online world throws at them. Being in control of one’s online activities in terms of how much of your own life you put out there, and learning to recognise and connect with authentic sources is an important first step. Choosing to experience more and more of your life in the real world rather than synthetic algorithmic bubbles will help you hone your critical thinking skill in a manner that you are no longer slave to anyone else’s ideology. Choose the path of freedom.

Can you use AI to transform marketing?

 

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With AI leaving or expected to leave its stamp on every business and profession known to mankind, is it possible that it would not leave its imprint on marketing? Can it empower marketing professionals to perform significantly better, helping them connect better with their prospects and thereby obtain superior results?

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There’s a lot that AI can help marketing managers with. It can help launch whole marketing campaigns powered by deeper market and customer insights that engage and convert prospects at scale as well as with efficiency. AI can help with a whole host of things that range from running chat bots, implementing automation of tasks, and managing social media. Marketing professionals can turbo charge their output by using AI with tasks ranging from writing copy, understanding market data, and so much more in practically no time-something which took long hours in the past.

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That AI is considered indispensable by more and more marketers is borne out by the 2024 State of Marketing AI report brought out by the Marketing AI Institute that has many marketers express their appreciation of the role AI plays in their daily workflows, going so far as to suggest that “they couldn’t live without AI.”

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AI helps marketers collect data and analyse it so as to obtain very useful customer insights. Besides, it helps  speed critical decision-making. Leveraging cutting edge technologies like natural language processing as well as machine learning, marketers can deploy AI to generate content, enhance team productivity, as well as provide better customer experiences. McKinsey reports that AI adoption across the globe in 2024 had reached as high as 72%

Generative AI is a major driver of increased AI adoption.

Marketing departments around the world are increasingly using generative AI to create highly personalized marketing collateral, as well as using critical insights culled from customer data to progressively enhance and evolve existing marketing strategies. In light of the fact that marketing departments are in possession of vast amounts of data collected from multiple sources, it is in the best interests of most companies to use AI to fully leverage these in order to stay competitive in today’s digital age.

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AI Helps Optimise ROI of Marketing

AI marketing tools empower marketers to zero in on the precise initiatives or actions required to reach out to one’s target audience in the most effective manner possible with the help of actionable insights obtained from an ongoing campaign in real time. What’s more, these can also help point out the right media to buy into, going to the extent of placing ads in the most impactful manner on the basis of insights received about customer behaviour. AI-backed marketing solutions are, therefore, quite outstanding when it comes to optimising the ROI of marketing campaigns.

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Better Handle on Key Performance Indicators

Marketing campaigns these days are primarily digital, and are, therefore, able to generate huge amounts of data, which can best be managed and put to use with the help of AI. This allows marketers to identify precisely which tactics are resulting in the best performance and which ones need fine tuning or improvement.

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Optimal Leveraging of Data Analytics

AI is great at letting businesses collect large amounts of relevant data, which can then help them derive very keen insights and  trends that would otherwise be almost impossible to discern. It can help them make much better campaign decisions on account of its superior analysis of data leading to better results.

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Superior Customer Interaction

AI powered chatbots are revolutionising real time customer interface, helping resolve queries quickly and efficiently. These can provide personalised advice that makes the purchase experience a very pleasant and useful one for the prospects and customers in question. While these may not be able to replicate the warmth of a real human interaction, they do tend to help a much larger number of people get a quick resolution to their product or service related issues.

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The Programmatic Advertising Push

The buying and selling of digital ads has been transformed thanks to the advent of AI powered programmatic advertising. It entails the algorithmic analysis of real time user activity, in order to be able to deliver ads to absolutely the most receptive prospects at the precisely right moment, thereby getting the maximum returns on the ad-spend.

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AI in Marketing-the path ahead

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The jury is divided about how effective will the use of AI in marketing really be in the time ahead. While the use of AI in marketing is catching up fast, it is by no means all pervasive with a lot many organisations not really hopping on to the AI- powered marketing band wagon. While AI is certainly helpful in enhancing productivity, there are those who worry about a corresponding decline in the quality of work, especially with regard to creative endeavours.

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In light of the above it would be best to use AI to augment human effort in the realm of marketing and not undermine it. This ties in with the larger debate about the role of AI in human endeavours. Is it merely a disruptor viewing everything with a productivity driven lens or is it primed to help humans achieve more by becoming better at whatever they do?

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Stop overhyping AI

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 In an era where tech companies have managed to achieve mind-boggling valuations thanks to the enormous hype surrounding AI and its ability to drive change, innovation, and extraordinary growth, it is perhaps time to step back and assess whether AI is really all that it is touted to be. What we are currently witnessing is reminiscent of the colonial powers discovering the New World’s riches and salivating at the prospect of raking in all the untamed resources and unimagined wealth all for themselves. The AI boom is premised on immense greed.

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Greed on the part of the tech giants to make unheard of wealth for themselves, even while they sell the dreams of a much better life to the billions of regular folk, is what defines the so-called AI revolution. No other technology since the times of antiquity has so little to show for what it has actually achieved. As a matter of fact, AI has become more of a marketing buzzword for many companies around the world who push their products and services to gullible consumers as AI-enabled and, therefore, somehow better for them.

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Just because a technology promises to do something with unparalleled efficiency does not necessarily make it better for mankind. All the material progress made by humans since the industrial revolution has come at a significant cost, in the shape of environmental damage and the considerable loss of plant and animal habitat. The ability to sail across the oceans, which led to the colonisations of the Americas, decimated the local populations and their civilisations, and led to a change in the flora and fauna of the land with the introduction of non-native plant and animal species by the colonisers.

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The tech companies are well on the way to becoming the 21st-century equivalent of the American Fruit  Company that ravaged Guatemala with its neo-colonialist labour practices and even led to the creation of the term banana republic, by capturing all the local levers of power. The threat posed by tech behemoths like Google, Meta, and Microsoft is universally recognised, with steps being taken to restrict and restrain any unfair trade practices these companies might indulge in by governments across the world, including in the US. The fact that these companies, among others, are at the forefront when it comes to deploying and monetising emerging AI technologies makes it important for everyone to study their offerings carefully and see if they actually provide any real value.

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If doctors, journalists, technology specialists, pilots, teachers, and everybody else relied primarily on AI technology as it exists today, there would be hell to pay. Leave alone replacing people, except in the case of the most basic of repetitive jobs, AI cannot be left unattended to autonomously fill in for humans, simply because it is, for now and the foreseeable future, too dumb to achieve or accomplish anything worthwhile. All its so-called amazing capabilities are in the realm of fantasy and imagination. These are presently are no superior to a magician’s petty tricks and smoke and mirrors deception. They say that once Agentive AI capabilities are achieved, this may be possible. But that is something that may not happen, or if it happens it might be many many years hence. So, in the meantime, let’s not worry ourselves sick worrying about job losses on account of greater and greater adoption of AI. If we cut through the hype, we will find that their AI has hardly inspired enough confidence in its users to warrant such fears. I don't know of one person who would prefer a chatbot to a live person when it comes to resolving one’s queries about anything.

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It is nobody’s case that AI as a technology should not be harnessed for its abilities to lighten workloads and, where possible, make work more efficient. But reposing blind faith in it and singing hosannas to it does nothing but raise the crazy valuations of leading tech companies, which many are saying is leading to an inexorable grand collapse of the global stock markets. The technology has to be evaluated for what it presently offers and what it might offer in the years ahead in a rational and level headed manner and not with a devotee’s zeal.

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Human-Machine Interface-Is it a Good Thing?

 

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Human-machine interface is something that we are all living with most of our waking lives, ever since smartphones slowly became a must-carry accessory for most of us. Without our realizing it our relationship with our smartphones became as intimate as it was with our heartbeat. We use it to communicate, work, shop, bank, entertain, look after our health, and so much else besides. We suffer pangs of intense separation anxiety if we are denied access to it. In Elon Musk’s words, we are already cyborgs, albeit very inefficient ones, given how much we rely on smartphones and computers in our day-to-day existence.

Going forward, this reliance on machines and computers is only going to grow exponentially, as evidenced by the fact that technologies like machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence are increasingly permeating most fields of human activity and endeavor. This is presumably going to usher in unimaginable levels of efficiency, productivity and growth. But the question we perhaps don’t pay enough attention to is at what cost. Let’s hark back just a mere two and a half decades back and look at life then. By all accounts, it was still a very modern and technologically advanced world.

There were super-fast aircraft and trains, the most amazing automobiles, extremely reliable telephone networks, and the ever-reliable fax machines for instant transmission of documents to every corner of the world. People were connected better socially, as they spent more time in face-to-face meetings, and the loneliness epidemic that has made people so prone to depression in today’s world was not the huge problem it is today. People were genuinely aware of things and didn’t have a superficial knowledge that seems to be the norm these days amongst the so-called digital generation.

People back then actually read books, newspapers, and magazines to acquire both knowledge and communication skills. The less one talks about the communication skills and the ability to dive deep into a subject and learn about it in intimate detail, when it comes to most Gen Z youngsters, the better it is. There are literally kids these days who would lose their way back from the office if they didn’t have Google Maps to guide them.  If you showed them a physical paper road map, they would probably not be able to follow it.

If all the digital systems were to fail overnight, the 21st-century-born kids would now know what to do to get about their daily lives. How good is the appalling reliance on technology, when animals relying merely on instinct are able to get from one place to another with ease?  There definitely needs to be much more research carried out about the impact of prolonged interface with electronic gadgets on young people born in the 21st century.

Humans have a long history of technological innovation, dating back to prehistoric times, which has enabled them to become the dominant life species on planet Earth, allowing them to accomplish many wondrous things. The harnessing of fire, the invention of the wheel, and a multitude of incredible scientific discoveries have made humans own the world on land, sea, and the skies and beyond, and in the process given mankind the ability to live a life that the gods of yore would envy. So, technology by itself is not a problem. It is giving precedence to technology, as seems to be the case these days, that is worrisome.

There is an old adage that goes you eat to live, you don’t live to eat. The same could be applied to technology. Technology should serve human beings; human beings should not serve technology. The problem that the world faces is that the world’s technology behemoths are dictating a surrender to increasingly autonomous artificial intelligence entities who will deploy or not deploy human resources as they see fit, with the intention of generating maximum profits for themselves. There is nothing that is happening for the greater good of mankind. That AI may one day turn rogue and turn on the human race itself is a clear and present danger we should clearly worry about. We have to take a call about how much technology is really good for us and where one should be drawing the line.

Love affair with motor vehicles in pre liberalisation India

 

                                                 

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For millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, India of the very recent past may as well have been the proverbial land of snake charmers. With so many flashy car brands offering a host of cutting edge features buzzing up and down India’s many roads and highways across its many cities, towns and increasingly villages, they would conjure up images of a medieval dystopia about what was after all a very modern 20th century India with myriad outstanding achievements to its credit.

It is true that before the launch of the Indo- Japanese Maruti-Suzuki 800 in the early 1980’s most Indian cars and motor vehicles were outdated, sluggish and inefficient when compared with what was driven in other countries around the world, including our neighbouring ones. The liberalization of the Indian motor vehicle sector continued into the 1990s,  dazzling the people of the country with the world’s leading automobile brands. Apart from Suzuki, the likes of Honda, Kawasaki, Mazda, Opel, Ford, Chevrolet, Nissan, Isuzu, Daewoo and many other renowned motor vehicle legends graced the Indian roads ushering in the modern Indian automobile revolution. Today the Indian automobile market has some outstanding international and homegrown car brands to cater to the needs of the country's huge middle class and its increasingly large number of millionaires and billionaires. The roads of cities and towns throughout the length and breadth of India see all manner of cars these days- from the humble hatch backs to luxury vehicles from the stables of Mercedes, BMW, Audi, and Jaguar, not to speak of sporty SUVs where the bigger the better is the mantra.

But that does not mean that the pre-liberalisation generation of India did not have its own love affair with motor vehicles of which the country in fact boasted a rich tradition and history harking  back to the earliest days of the twentieth century. The maharajas and the British high officials of the day were the first ones to use automobiles in India. By the time the country gained independence, the well heeled among the local populace too started owning cars.

This was the era of premium luxury automobiles which reflected the class and status of their owners. Brands like Rolls Royce, Plymouth, Bentely, Chevrolet,and Buick were owned and flaunted by royalty and wealthy business people like the Parsees. Other well to do people had their Morris Minors the precursor to the grand old Ambassador car the emblem of pre liberalisation India of languid pace.

Some enterprising Indians would dazzle their compatriots by buying contemporary foreign brands of cars at auctions conducted by the State Trading Corporation and driving around the streets of large cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Imagine the looks of envy when someone would drive by in their massive Chevrolet Caprice among a sea of dreary  Ambassadors and Fiats!

The children who grew up in the 1970s to 1980s, however,  carry vivid memories of the era of stately and graceful, if lumbering vehicles that took them to their destination albeit not at today's frenetic speed to this day. It was the era of the great Indian triumvirate of Ambassador, Fiat and Standard cars which remained pretty much the same vehicle barring a few minor and cosmetic  upgrades from time to time for decade upon decade. Other much loved vehicles from that era were the Matador Van and the Jonga jeeps and the Shaktiman trucks, which were used largely  by the army. All the buses and trucks were from Tata and Ashok Leyland, save a few by Hindustan Motors and some by Dodge, which one saw occasionally.

Among the two wheelers, it was the Bajaj Chetak scooter that ruled the roost, alongside the stately Lambretta. The most coveted of the bikes was the Enfield Bullet 350, with its iconic thumping sound which the armed forces and the police forces of the country bought in large numbers. The Yezdi and Jawa bikes were also very popular among the young for their stylish appeal. The Rajdoot Mini, which Rishi Kapoor popularised in his debut film Bobby, was also quite popular with the young and trendy. Rajdoot also mass produced other bigger bikes for the masses, including milk-men who would attach large cans of milk to either side of a bike and go on their daily deliveries.

Three wheelers from Bajaj and Lamberetta became the poor man's taxi, with the larger Tempo three wheeler with its distinctive growl being used to ferry goods across short distances. 

These vehicles coexisted with bullock carts, cycle rickshaws and interesting hybrid vehicles like old American second world war leftover Hardly Davidsons being repurposed in Old Delhi as the iconic Phut Phut rickshaws capable of carrying six to eight passengers.

Automobiles had character in those times and people loved their cars and bikes dearly, almost like a family member, as they often were with them for years, sometimes even decades. It was a very different time, when cars didn't have air conditioning, but small electrically operated fans to circulate a weak breeze amongst the passengers. Other cars would show up with straw mats on the roofs of their cars on which their owners would spray water on hot summer days, to create some manner of primitive air conditioning. 

Those were indeed very different times, but splendid times, nevertheless. Like the old Dylan song goes- ‘the times,  they are a changin.” It's a pity they are.