Why all this fuss about Generative AI?

 Everybody and their uncle has heard about Generative AI. Those who sleep under a rock haven’t. Of course, most people know it as ChatGPT and they haven't stopped yapping about it since its launch. Most of the chatter is about how Generative AI will take away people's jobs rather than how it will help business enterprises perform better. People employed in professions as diverse as writing, coding, law, and medical science have expressed fear that a bunch of technocrats and big corporations will replace workers with Generative AI and concentrate all the wealth in their hands at the expense of society as a whole. The Hollywood writers' strike is a classic example of this type of fear taking root and almost paralyzing people.

 

People are also afraid that algorithms fed with a bias can be used to influence public opinion by unscrupulous elements. Others fear that rogue or unscrupulous coders could cause grave danger to software, hardware, people, and enterprises- a step up from the regular cyber threats of the past. People and organizations would fear stolen identities as well as attempts to besmirch fair names and reputations.

Do we really need to fear Generative AI?

                 

If Generative AI is left unregulated and those that deploy it do so in a manner that does not benefit people- employees, and customers, there may be cause for fear. It is another matter, though that such short-sighted leveraging of Generative AI will eventually rebound on the organization concerned most negatively. That being stated, if it is not to be misused by would-be monopolists and oligarchs, rules and regulations and a proper structure to implement them must be put in place.

 

However, it is pertinent to note that there was widespread fear amongst people that rapid and widespread computerization would sound the death knell of jobs in sectors like retail, banking, and finance about a decade or so ago. In fact, Oxford University came out with a report that 47% of the total jobs in the US were at risk.[1] Yet, things didn’t pan out that way at all.

 

Generative AI will over the long run create a whole new set of jobs, that didn't exist before. AI trainers and operators, auditors for AI-generated work, original cutting-edge content creators, interpretation of content in terms of human sentiment, AI integration expert, AI compliance specialist and a slew of other all-new job descriptions.[2] While all of this is heartening, there will be quite a few challenges and risks that will arise in the short term, as Generative AI continues on its relentless march. 

 

To assuage the widespread fear that has accompanied the launch of Generative AI technology, it makes sense to spread awareness about Generative AI concerning the opportunities presented by it and the inherent risks it might carry amongst the people at large, organizations, and policymakers. Doing so will lead to well-thought-out and responsible deployment of the technology.

 

There must be total transparency and accountability about the algorithms being deployed so that users can pinpoint any biases that might have crept in. At the same time, the developers should ensure that the technology does not lend itself to misuse. The highest ethical standards need to be observed with regard to design and development. Care also should be taken when deploying a range of training datasets, so that the output obtained is fair, well-meaning, and good for society. This requires researchers, domain experts, policymakers, and ethicists to join hands to ensure that Generative AI becomes a tremendous agent of change, economic growth, and all-round well-being.

 

 

 

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[1]https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/07/06/20-new-and-enhanced-roles-ai-could-create/?sh=2298b29b6f04

An Ode to Gasoline

Photo by sergio souza: https://www.pexels.com/photo/an-empty-gas-station-3602009/

Now that the world has agreed that gasoline powered car engines need to go and be replaced by electric ones, it is perhaps time to start feeling a little bit (a lot) nostalgic about the reign of gas or petrol as it is also called. It has had a glorious run and what a time it was! Don't get me wrong. I am a strong advocate of the phasing out of all fossil fuels in order to save the world from environmental catastrophe, but let us also consider for a moment what the gasoline revolution achieved for mankind, before fossil fuel over use started wrecking the world.

It made rapid global mobility a realty- something that led to people travelling longer distances with ease and interacting with a far wider world than they did in the era of the horse drawn carriages. It led to a boom in education, trade, commerce, tourism, agriculture and so much else. Then there was the perennial love affair with cars. Ask any petrol head and they will tear up talking about their favourite set of wheels, the special features of the latest sports cars from the houses of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

Most of us fondly remember the first car we ever sat in or drove. Then there are the memories associated with buying the first car, taking in its new car smell and getting the car serviced and learning about how the car actually ran and the components that went into its running smoothly. There is so much history associated with gasoline-the oil tycoons, the legendary automobile makers- Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Volkswagen, Mercedes,  BMW, Lada, Fiat and one could go on and on.

Fast cars in movies, very fast cars taking part in Grand Prix events around the world, iconic car rallies like the Paris-Dakar one, little kids collecting Dinky cars, the contest between petrol and diesel driven cars, drive-in movie theatres and a million other memories associated with the world of gasoline have become an indelible part of most of our psyches. The change to electric cars will no doubt come about, just like the change from the heavily polluting steam locomotives to diesel and electric ones came about. But we did get nostalgic about them and till today there are many steam locomotives running on certain routes around the word as heritage runs. Heck, we still have horse drawn coaches plying in some parts!

I am going to hold on to my dear petrol driven car for a while longer till the time electric cars become affordable for folks like me and love every moment of it. Bring out the hankies people, its time for some big time gasoline nostalgia.

Hoping For Something

 

The marshy landscape stretched endlessly in front of him. He was standing in mud almost to the top of his gum boots. Every time he took a laborious step forward some of the muck would pour down his boots and find its way right down to his toes. It was almost dusk and the sky was an ethereal pink. A cold breeze was blowing across the soggy land creating ripples wherever the marsh gave way to water. John felt a cold shiver pass down his slight frame as he tried to keep warm by pulling his coat together tightly with both his hands.

It started to rain. A cold persistent drizzle that fell like a fine spray. John cursed under his breath.

"Damn, that was all that I needed! I might as well be waterboarded."

He was aware that he was amongst the lucky ones. The whole planet was largely submerged and life as it used to exist on Earth was fast becoming a memory. Climate change and global warming had long crossed the tipping point and everywhere was flooded. In some places, the water rose twenty to thirty feet above the land and at some places, it was a few inches-but everywhere was covered.

Nations had disappeared from the face of the earth like they had never existed. There was death everywhere. Death of humans, animals, birds, plants, forests, farmland, infrastructure, cities, villages and towns. The signs of destruction were largely out of sight covered in water and mud, except at the places where the water was shallow and you could see the relics of destruction-the roof of what was once a proud house, a flattened-out automobile, the ruined fuselage of an aeroplane, parts of skeletons of what were once living beings. Above all was the all-pervading stench of death.

The stench was something that John was used to. It didn’t bother him. Nor did the fact that he might be the only human alive. All he knew was that he was alive and it was his duty to find a way and means to survive another day. He would forage for something to eat all the time. A piece of fallen fruit was his best hope. He didn’t have the strength to hunt. There were a few animals here and there in the marshy land and plenty of waterfowl, but there was nothing he could use to fashion any kind of weapon.

He was thankful for the rain on account of the fact that he could stick his tongue out and try and quench his immense thirst. The patches of water stretching all the way to the horizon were not fit to be considered a source of drinking water. There was simply too much contamination in them because of the dead and decaying matter they contained.

John was a man with a steely resolve and determination. In normal times, he would be the kind of person people would look up to-a natural leader. Someone, who would one day make president or prime minister. But here, he was in an apocalyptic world, which he would not have imagined possible a mere ten years back. He tried formulating a plan in his weak and enfeebled mind.

“What can I possibly do, now? Keep walking, till I find someplace where there is dry ground? Maybe it is large enough to support others like me who have survived? Who knows, we might be able to get together and create some kind of a life? Get a fire going to keep ourselves warm and try and build some thatched huts?"

He held on to that hope and trudged across the muddy plains mile after mile. At times he would get into parts which were as deep as him, and he would have to exert every ounce of his depleting strength to swim out of danger. He knew that if this happened a few times more he would drown on account of sheer exhaustion. 

John thought he saw a large tree loom ahead of him on the horizon. It was dark now and the moon was up. He thought that his mind was playing tricks on him. As he moved closer to what he initially thought was a mirage,  took on the definite shape of an oak tree its twisted leafless branches stretching out towards the moon as if to grasp it. AND IT STOOD ON DRY LAND! Faint with relief John staggered onto the dry land and threw himself down on it and lay prostrate with his face in the grass that grew abundantly around him.

He thought he hear a sound-a human sound and turned onto his back. A tall well-built woman wearing a garment fashioned out of some kind of animal skin stood over him with a large axe in her hands which were raised high above her head as she prepared to strike him on his head. Speechless and transfixed with fear, he watched as the moonlight glinted off its steel blade and the woman struck with all the force she could summon.

John yelled at the top of his voice as he felt a crackling sound emerge from the middle of his skull. A searing pain ripped through his body from the top of his skull to the top of his toes. He opened his eyes and saw the calendar on the wall opposite his bed show the date- 10^th August 2023. The clock next to it showed it was 10 am.

"Damn, I must have hit my head against the headboard. God what an awful dream!”

“That’s what you get when you go on a drinking binge with your buddies,” said his wife smilingly as she came into the room bearing a tray with two cups of tea.

“After you came back from your college reunion party last night, you crashed like a log and snored the night away. Here, this herb tea should cure your hangover.”

"Thanks, honey. I better get dressed for the office. Have an important meeting to attend."

“That may have to wait,” his wife replied.

“Why?”

“It has been raining incessantly since yesterday and all the streets are waterlogged. The city authorities have declared a holiday."

“What?” said John, his skin an ashen- white.

“What’s the matter honey, you can always work from home.”

 

 

 

Why the world needs India more than China

 

 

Photo by DEBRAJ  ROY: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-walking-on-the-street-14687500/

India and China are two of the world's most ancient civilizations and have a lot in common in the sense that both nations have been in existence a lot longer than all European and most certainly North American ones. They may not have existed as modern nation-states like in the present times, but there certainly was a global recognition of India and China as two well-defined regions of the world since the times of the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians.

Photo by Markus Winkler: https://www.pexels.com/photo/the-forbidden-city-in-beijing-china-5102098/

Both nations made extraordinary discoveries and inventions that helped changed the shape of the world. India gave the world its numerals, the decimal system and the zero, whole China is credited with inventions like paper, gunpowder and the magnetic compass. Both nations suffered the consequences of colonial rule, though this was more direct in the case of India.

For much of their history, there was largely no conflict between the two nations. India was in many ways the spiritual godfather on account of Indian missionary monks introducing Buddhism to China, which quickly became one of its major religions. Buddhist monks, students and pilgrims had been coming to visit the holy Buddhist destinations as well as the great universities at Nalanda and Taxila down the centuries of the first millennium.

This association came to an end with the rise of Muslim power in India and the subsequent destruction and decay of many of the nation's premier ancient universities and monasteries. China and India hardly ever engaged again until after India became independent again when it came face to face with a communist and revisionist power whose ideology could not have been more different from its own. While India came to terms with its colonial past and made peace with it and adopted the best aspects of what its long encounter with the West taught it in the shape of the Westminster model of democracy, a finely developed judicial system, a well-functioning bureaucracy and widespread use of the English language, communist China seethed with indignation and resentment at its colonial past and determined to right historical wrongs, which put it on a confrontation path with almost all of its neighbours and the world beyond.

Its earlier economic policies were disastrous for its people causing famine, death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. It wasn't till it abandoned its command economy model in late 1978 and adopted Western-style capitalism albeit without the accompanying democratic form of government that it managed stupendous economic success that saw it outperform India for a few decades.

India delayed liberalizing its economy till the early 1990s which saw it fall way behind China in the economic race. However, things have come a full circle with the Chinese economy decelerating at a breakneck speed in the post-pandemic period with their supreme leader Xi Jinping reverting to the ways of the command economy even as the Chinese economy goes into a tailspin on account of its ageing population, all-round falling incomes and demand.

 India on the other hand is one of the fastest growing economies of the world with a much younger population all set to propel it to become a $5 trillion economy in the next few years. Besides, it is a vibrant and functioning democracy with a free and vocal press. It has more speakers of the English language than even the United Kingdom giving it a unique advantage over the inscrutable Chinese. India's foreign policy is rules-based and follows none of the wolf warrior diplomacy nonsense that China is known for. In a world fraught with danger where Russia is unravelling at a break-neck speed under its ageing dictator Putin and China facing an economic meltdown, India is a force for stability in the world. 

The US continues to be the sole superpower in the world and with China fast running out of steam, it is in the former's interest to support India via enhanced economic and defence ties, apart from the already strong cultural ties on account of the large Indian diaspora in that nation. The same is true of Europe, Australia, Japan, South East Asia and even the Middle East. Where does that leave China? Nowhere.

 

AI Take over Writing? Not a Chance!

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bionic-hand-and-human-hand-finger-pointing-6153354/

 

AI Take over Writing-Not a Chance!

 

To all the writers bemoaning their fate, fearing the imminent takeover of their jobs by AI, my sincere advice is to "Stop the whining and start writing!" AI as it exists today is too dumb to even attempt to replace writers. I am also willing to go out on a limb to say that it never can-no matter how much it evolves. A technology that requires us to prompt it, and turns to content already created by us to regurgitate what we created cannot even begin to replace us. It makes no sense.

AI is not a life form that will try and supplant us. I am not too sure that it will ever be in competition with us for the control of planet Earth and its resources, even if we teach it to think autonomously one day. Parents train their children to be autonomous of them, yet they never really do, even with all the freedom they have. Do you think that mankind with its programmed proclivity to be self-centred, manipulative and primed to survive at all costs will ever let that happen?

The great sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke believed that the day is not far when mechanical life will replace organic life and not only should we not resist it, we should probably look at it as something evolutionary that was bound to happen. He likened it to the Homo Sapiens wiping out the Neanderthals. Again bunkum! AI is nothing but another tool made by clever mankind, something it has been doing for hundreds and thousands of years.

AI has as little chance of destroying the very human proclivity to write as the automobile has of destroying our ability to walk or a boat has of doing away with our ability to swim. As long as there is mankind, it will always have the urge to create something, and AI is not going to stop us from doing that. It can at best only follow our lead and try to second-guess what we might be thinking. It needs to pick our brains and not otherwise. So, buckle up and keep writing.

How to show empathy in your writing?

Photo by Matt Hardy: https://www.pexels.com/photo/body-of-water-under-blue-and-white-skies-1533720/

 

Writers are always advised to display empathy in their writing if they are to have any chance of connecting with their intended audience. While this is almost a truism, and certainly a valid prerequisite for someone hoping to make a success of their writing, the fact of the matter is that you cannot display empathy; you have got to possess it. The only way to do that is to be empathetic towards yourself first.  Write something that resonates with you, and there is a chance that what you come up with will resonate with your fellow humans out there.

If you approach your writing solely with the intent of addressing the needs of your "target audience", you will almost certainly never get it right. That is because you are not "them" and will never be. You are 100% you. Well almost- for it is not possible to know yourself fully! If you begin to understand what it is that works for you, there is a great chance of what you write working with others as well. What connects us all is our common humanity and you can always bank on it.

If you are planning on writing a great book, write something that moves you and makes you react in a certain way when you read what you have written.  If it moves you on a primeval level, then you are doing all right, and you can send it out to the world and see how they take to it. Honesty with your own self is the best way to ensure what you write is perceived as empathetic to others. You try and manufacture that empathy, and your writing will come across as fake, insincere and pretentious.

What you can do to pull a potential reader to your writing, however, is to use a lot of sensory details that paint a vivid picture that a human being can relate to. If you are writing about your sipping on a cup of coffee, you could conjure an interesting image by also mentioning you are doing so watching the rain fall gently on the palm tree outside your window. This will work better if that is actually happening, or at least there is a palm tree that you can see from your window, which you can then visualise being washed by rain while you drink coffee!

Your own experiences of life are your true coach and mentor. Turn to them when you need to write something truly inspirational. There is a far greater chance of your readers seeing the truth of what you have experienced yourself, than anything you think your readers would like to read.

Why Writers Should Not Give a Damn about AI Encroaching On Their Turf

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-red-typewriter-1995842/

 

I hear that one of the reasons for the Hollywood writers’ strike is the fact that they fear the big studios will turn to AI for creating scripts! Really?! What does AI ever do other than rehash, regurgitate and repurpose old content already created by humans? You might train a chimpanzee to ride a cycle in a circus, but it will not be able to ride it to the grocery store to buy bananas for its mother!

AI doesn’t really create anything new, it only trawls pre-existing content on the internet very efficiently and comes up with something that it assumes is just right for the purpose that has been communicated to it by a human. It, of course, is incapable of doing anything on its own and has to be told what to do by us.

It cannot, for instance, wake up one morning look at the sun and get inspired to write a sci-fi tale about how a hundred years in the future, mankind solves its energy problem, by devising a system to obtain endless energy from the sun. Now, that’s a very hackneyed concept for a sci-fi story, but at least I thought of it myself and didn’t do a Google search about what to write a sci-fi story about this morning.

That is the problem with AI-generated content. It lacks soul and originality and can be easily distinguished from original human-created content. Not only does it not rank very high on SEO, it provides very little value as it is less likely to connect with readers on a human level. Besides, it is unreliable in terms of it being more often than not getting flagged for plagiarism. A professional content creator who has built a formidable reputation for the quality of his or her writing would be committing professional suicide over the long run if they turn to AI to get the job done.

For one, they will no longer have a distinct identity of their own in terms of how they write. Secondly, they might get to hear negative feedback from their clients, if their content gets flagged for copyright issues. Even if they use AI to only generate ideas or collaborate with it in jointly creating content, they will lose their edge in writing, which will tend to be lazy and lacking in conviction.  All of this would lead to the gradual frittering away of the hard-won goodwill of their target audience.

We are told that AI is advancing at a rapid pace and very soon it will be able to think autonomously. Well, if it does that then we might as well bid goodbye to organic life as we know it and say hello to a new era of mechanical life. Do we really want it? It's like handing over the keys of the fortress to an enemy we have created and nurtured ourselves. This is something that has been flagged by the most eminent scientists of our times, some of whom played a big part in the creation of artificial intelligence as we know it today.

Writing is the most basic form of human expression and defines our humanity, as much as eating, marrying, having children and forming social associations do. We cannot outsource any of that to machines. Why should we do it? Do we want to become cyborgs? Humans are way too intelligent to self-destruct like that and will put the right safety mechanisms in place when it comes to the use of AI. This is something that has come up at the highest levels of government, social scientists and the very people who created AI.

AI as a technology cannot approach the human level of creativity and original thought by a long shot for a very long time, if at all. That it will not be allowed to overtake us and make slaves of us is a foregone conclusion. There is no need to fear it, but one can find uses for it when it comes to carrying out basic research for writing. Of course, some are using it to do all kinds of things like writing research reports, books, prose, poetry, et al. But they will be found out soon and ostracised. The writers who continue to create original content derived from their own experience, understanding and imagination aren't going anywhere. In fact, they will thrive.