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By:

Prasad Dixit

11 October 2024 at 1:09:23 am

The Human Advantage in an Artificial Age

As artificial intelligence grows smarter and more efficient, the real battle may not be about machines surpassing humanity but about whether humans squander the qualities that still set them apart. With the recent news of a Chinese robot beating the human record in a half- marathon, there is renewed debate on how AI could outsmart human beings. Many experts see it as yet another proof of impending disaster as AI takes over most of the jobs in the years to come. This is not the first time when...

The Human Advantage in an Artificial Age

As artificial intelligence grows smarter and more efficient, the real battle may not be about machines surpassing humanity but about whether humans squander the qualities that still set them apart. With the recent news of a Chinese robot beating the human record in a half- marathon, there is renewed debate on how AI could outsmart human beings. Many experts see it as yet another proof of impending disaster as AI takes over most of the jobs in the years to come. This is not the first time when human civilization is facing a technological revolution that has the potential to impact society and economy in a profound manner. There is, however, a crucial difference with AI driven revolution that is often missed out. The first industrial revolution happened because steam engines were invented and it led to mechanization of production. It was followed by discovery of electrical energy and technologies to harness it for mass production. Next wave of evolution was led by computerization and automation in practically all the fields covering both offices and industrial shop floors through mainframes, personal computers, and programmable logic controllers. While all these leaps in technologies are very different in terms of the specific underlying inventions, they all have one thing in common. They were all invented to do things that were humanly impossible to do. One steam engine or electric motor could do the work that perhaps hundreds of humans would never be able to accomplish even with their collective muscle power. Automation of the manufacturing assembly line would deliver speed and accuracy that human beings would never be able to achieve. Beyond Human Technological advances in Telecommunication, for that matter, have simply expanded the range of 'hearing' and 'seeing' far beyond what human vocal chords, ears, and eyes could manage to do on their own. Computers, at its core, are essentially doing the math and calculations at a speed and accuracy that the human brain can never achieve. To add to that, machines using all these innovations in technology would work tirelessly without any fatigue for a duration that human beings would never be able to match. Although AI is yet another highly potent technological innovation, it is not as straightforward as the previous ones. It can absorb and synthesize huge amounts of data that the human brain perhaps cannot do. Ability of AI to answer any question reasonably well using all the global knowledge made available to it, summarize enormous amount of data and text quickly, quickly draw a complex picture based on instructions given verbally, predict a trend, recognize and highlight a specific face in a fraction of a second from millions of faces, write code based on simple English instructions, are all examples where the speed and accuracy of underlying computation is delivering what human being cannot match. However, there are several areas where human beings are trying to improve AI so that it can, some day, match or exceed capability that human beings themselves already have. Examples of this include the ability of AI to completely replace a human driver safely in all situations, understand full context or an intent behind a statement, carry out complex and well-coordinated mechanical activity in response to various unpredictable situations, react appropriately by correctly assessing the emotions at play, integrate generated code appropriately in the existing larger systems landscape, and so on. In such cases, AI is not exhibiting any capability that is humanly impossible to match. On the contrary, AI is trying to catch up with what humans can do easily. In other words, in these areas, AI is trying to become what humans already are. This very aspect separates AI driven technology revolution from all the previous ones. Direct Competition It is often said that AI and humans will co-exist in the future, and people will need to change their ways of working. It is obvious that AI is also going to directly compete with humans in many sectors. Equipment with an embedded chip on-board do compete with humans even today. A case in point is household equipment such as ‘intelligent’ washing machines and dish-washers where robots to do vacuum cleaning and floor mopping do compete with humans offering these services. A human household help can perform these activities far better than what a machine can do. However, given an affordable choice, an increasing number of households prefer machines over human maid services for a reason. Human household help may not always be punctual, sincere, honest, and reliable. But machines are. Uncontrolled emotions, anger, frustration, laziness, indiscipline, absenteeism do affect humans - but not AI driven machines (at least till the time AI itself acquires emotions of its own, and becomes self-aware some day). This aspect of comparison between AI and humans is likely to become far more prominent and consequential as AI driven machines and robots become more and more intelligent and thereby start competing far more effectively with human capability in many spheres. Competition is said to bring about improvement. Just as AI improves itself through continuous learning to mimic human behaviour and actions, human workforce also needs to improve itself by avoiding behavioural issues and inefficiencies referred to above. Otherwise, humans would lose the natural advantage that they still enjoy over AI, and which is likely to continue even in the foreseeable future. Employers or consumers in the labour-intensive service sector will accept AI driven machines and robots with all its known limitations if it turns out to be a better net-net deal in comparison to services offered by humans. This specific aspect has tremendous significance for India. Many Countries from the developed world do not have a young population with reasonably good IQ in required numbers. India, on the other hand, has it in abundance. One could compare it with abundant availability of Thorium or Sunlight in India as compared to the Western world. Consequently, unlike many Countries in the world that have a Uranium centric approach towards nuclear energy, India's approach needs to be centered around Thorium. India's strategy related to renewable, non-conventional, green energy needs to be based on solar power. Indian Context Strategies for adopting AI in the Indian context need to be similarly tailored for the Indian context. India needs to adopt AI in the areas where it clearly has an advantage over humans in terms of speed, throughput, ease of use, accuracy, and efficiency. However, the use of AI needs to be judiciously controlled in areas where AI is trying to catch up with the capabilities of the human mind and body. Several labour-intensive services such as drivers, caregivers for the elderly people, parcel delivery, security guards, maintenance and repair of various equipment, are all examples in that category. Educational policies and overall work culture in the Country needs to appreciate this reality. Just as AI experts are trying hard to 'teach' AI algorithms and improve them through supervised learning, another set of experts need to sensitize and teach humans on how to understand, appreciate, preserve, and further hone the significant natural advantage that they already have over AI. Despite all the technological breakthroughs in AI, in many areas, still, it is a battle that humans will lose only if they choose to. (The writer works in the Information Technology sector. Views personal.)

How AI is redefining Digital Voice

The rise of AI-generated speech is turning the human voice into both a technological marvel and a legal dilemma.

For a long time, the human voice has been one of the most personal ways to tell who someone is. A tone, timbre, or even a scared giggle can tell us right away if we're talking to a friend, a parent, or a stranger. Artificial intelligence has messed up the one-to-one link between voice and person. Voice-cloning technology makes it possible to copy speech so well that it's hard to tell the difference between "real" and "synthetic" speech. In 2026, when we write this, the question is no longer whether AI can copy your voice, but who owns it, who controls it, and how much of your identity you are willing to give up to the digital world.


Voice cloning, or voice replication, is when machine learning looks at short audio samples of a person's speech and makes new sounds in that same voice. Text-to-speech (TTS) algorithms today can make sentences that weren't in the original recordings. They can match not only pitch and rhythm but also subtle cues like breath, emotion, and micro-pauses. This isn't science fiction anymore.


Voice-cloning platforms can create visual assistants and help people who lost their voice during illness get it back and even make “digital twins” of famous people and artists for historical purposes. Business and the media can stay consistent by using cloned voices to let characters speak in a different language or to let a dead narrator “voice” new content. But this power comes with a big problem: the voice is no longer just a sound but a piece of personal information that can be copied, sold, and even stolen.


Ethics of Content

One of the major setbacks with voice cloning is that it doesn't get clear permission. Podcasts, interviews, YouTube videos, and customer service calls are just a few examples of recordings that aren’t marked as “voice data” for reuse. When a company or creator trains a model on those samples without the speaker’s permission, they are treating a biometric attribute like any piece of content.


Biometric data, like voiceprints, is very private because it is one-of-a kind and hard to change. People can use a cloned voice to impersonate someone else, commit fraud, or even blackmail someone with a deepfake. A cloned CEO’s voice on a phone call can approve a fake transfer, and a cloned friend's voice in a fake distress letter can trick family members into sending money. As a result, ethical rules now say that voice owners must give informed, detailed consent that includes where, how, and for how long their digital voice can be used. This is not just a box to check for “terms and conditions"; it changes how we think about speech as personal property.


The more accurate voice cloning is, the easier it is for someone to steal your identity. Voice authentication doesn't have a way to reset it like passwords and PINs do. Once a synthetic replica is made, it can be passed around forever without the original speaker.


Legal experts say that most countries still don't have a specific "right to one's voice." Voice theft using AI needs a mix of protections, such as privacy laws, defamation laws, and data-protection laws, which were not meant to deal with this problem. This makes it possible for someone to use a cloned voice to hurt someone's reputation, trick an audience, or impersonate a famous person, and the victim has to deal with a lot of different laws to find a way out. As AI speech replication becomes more affordable and expedient, lawmakers are recognizing voice as an essential element of personal identification, warranting its own legal classification rather than being merely a by-product of audio files.


Empowering People

Voice cloning isn’t always dangerous, even though there are risks associated. It can help people get their voice back when they lose it because of illness, surgery, or old age if they use it wisely. Some medical and artistic projects use old recordings of a person’s speech to make a synthetic voice that sounds like them. This lets them “speak” again. In these cases, voice cloning is used to protect people’s dignity instead of taking advantage of them.

 

Artists and voice professionals are also looking into licensing systems that let them intentionally clone their own voices under strict contracts.  A singer might sell the right to use her voice in a certain game or ad, while a voice actor might license a character voice for animated projects. The speaker is still the owner and controller here, deciding which apps are okay and which ones aren’t. The idea takes power away from people who collect data without revealing their identities and gives it to people whose identities are at stake.


In the age of AI, one’s voice is more than just a sound; it’s a digital asset that can be saved, copied, and used. This means that the saying “If you say it online, it's not yours anymore" doesn't work anymore. A new vocal ethic needs to know three important things, foremost among them being consent. No one should be able to clone someone’s voice without their clear, informed consent, which includes information about context, length, and amount of use.


Then comes control, where people should be able to take back permission, delete voice data, and see where their digital voice is being used. The third thing is transparency, as it should be easy to tell the difference between synthetic voices and real human speech.


Not only will algorithms shape the future of voice cloning, but also the moral choices we make today. The goal shouldn’t be to stop the technology, but to make sure that your digital voice stays unique to you.


(The writer is a columnist and climate researcher with experience in political analysis, ESG research and energy policy. Views personal.)

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