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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.)

Rags to riches story of Mathadi worker

Curious Case Of Datta Pawar - Part 1


Mumbai: During recently concluded session of the state legislature, BJP MLA from central Nagpur Pravin Datke revealed a mysterious story of rags to riches of a Mathadi worker in Mumbai, who allegedly has amassed a wealth of over Rs 300 crore in a span of about a decade while exploiting various industrial as well as commercial units as well as the Mathadi workers.


According to what Datke told the legislature, Dattatraya Bhaleghare alias Datta Pawar, who has registered himself as a Mathadi worker (the porter who carries load over his head) has at least two luxury bungalows, several vehicles worth Rs 10-15 crore, many houses in his name and several acres of land in his name. Interestingly the guy also runs dozens of companies. Datke accused him of conspiring with high-ranking officials from various Mathadi boards and duping both, the workers as well as the commercial establishments and demanded that a thorough inquiry be conducted in the case. Minister Akash Fundkar immediately accepted the demand and announced setting up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the charges.


However, while some of the officials of the various Mathadi boards were put under suspension when the SIT probe began, the SIT has ironically excluded Datta Pawar from the probe. But whatever little probe has been done, too has reveal several interesting facts about the so called Mathadi worker.


The story of the riches of this Mathadi worker begins with two PAN cards. The PAN cards appear to be in the name of two different persons, Dattatraya Bhaleghare and Datta Pawar, interestingly names of their fathers and grandfathers too are the same and their signatures also match. It was revealed during a case of alleged extortion against him at Thane wherein the sessions court directed the income tax department to verify and furnish information on how many IT returns were filed by this one person in these two names and also to calculate the income tax evaded and the penalty for the same.


The humble Mathadi worker also has at least 10 high-end luxury vehicles like the Mercedes, Fortuner and Innova Crista.


Interestingly all the vehicles have the same registration number 4499. The court has also asked the police to investigate into the case of these many variety of vehicles with one single number.


Dattatraya Bhaleghare aka Datta Pawar was born in a humble family of Kolewadi village of Jawli taluka of Satara district. Because of dependency of rain-fed farming the family had hardly any means for living. This led Dattatraya Bhaleghare to migrate to Mumbai in search of job in late ‘90s.


He registered himself as a Mathadi worker and started working along with young men from nearby villages. Due to his sharp mind, he quickly became popular among the fellow Mathadi workers. Apart from working as a Mathadi labour, he also started doing some small odd jobs like driving an auto rickshaw.


His nature to involve associated in his businesses led in his popularity growing leaps and bounds and the popularity among fellow labourers raised him in the eyes of politicians. He moved close to some of the politicians. His old associates say that he had a good opportunity to use the closeness with politicians for the betterment of his fellow workers, instead he used it for his own benefit and amassed huge wealth.


He still has a good hold among his followers so much so that a demonstration march too is organised in his home district next week to shield him from any inquiry that might be conducted against him.


Apart from strong political backing, with the ill-gotten money he has made friends not within the Mathadi boards but in various arms of the state administration. These invisible hands are currently said to be shielding him from any action against him and his name was even excluded from the SIT probe. However, he still has several cases registered against him in various police stations of Mumbai and Thane. Even if the police and other departments like the IT follow the instructions of the court and initiate probe against him, the mystery surrounding the rags to riches story will fade away and the crimes behind it will come forth, say the people who have been closely following the case.

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